{"id":1693,"date":"2015-01-06T18:13:43","date_gmt":"2015-01-06T18:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/metalwerx\/?p=1693"},"modified":"2015-01-06T21:42:22","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T21:42:22","slug":"student-spotlight-mary-ann-coffey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/metalwerx\/2015\/01\/06\/student-spotlight-mary-ann-coffey\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Spotlight: Mary Ann Coffey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Like other Metalwerx students, Mary Ann Coffey has turned to Metalwerx to explore and develop her creative instincts, following that irresistible path that leads to <em>making things<\/em>. Mary Ann graduated from UMass Amherst, earned an MBA from Babson College, and settled in Colorado, where she started her own computer service business.\u00a0There she took a class in a jeweler\u2019s private studio in which she learned to make a hand-forged bracelet.\u00a0 That was the beginning.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalwerx.com\/blog\/Coffey-Rectangle-Bracelet.jpg\" alt=\"Mary Ann Coffey Rectangle Bracelet\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Mary Ann returned to Boston to work in marketing for high-tech companies like Wang, Lotus, Ziff Davis, and PictureTel, which was one of the first commercial companies to offer video-conferencing services.\u00a0 But eventually she found she needed some creative outlet.\u00a0 She and her friend Kiki Kinney, also a Metalwerx student, discovered the DeCordova Museum\u2019s now-defunct\u00a0education program in metalsmithing, and found themselves one winter day driving through a New England blizzard from Marblehead to Lincoln to take a weekend workshop there with instructor David Baird, who now teaches at Metalwerx. She felt like she had finally given herself permission to do something for herself, which it seems is often the feeling when one gives in and at last follows\u00a0those creative urges.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalwerx.com\/blog\/Coffey-Keum-Boo-Earrings.jpg\" alt=\"Mary Ann Coffey Keum Boo Earrings\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Mary Ann has a small studio at home which, she says, \u201ccontinues to grow as I ask for equipment and tools as\u00a0gifts at Christmas and birthdays.\u201d\u00a0 Up to now, she has enjoyed making jewelry as gifts for family and friends, and for herself.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalwerx.com\/blog\/Coffey-Amethyst-Necklace.jpg\" alt=\"Mary Ann Coffey Necklace with Amethyst\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Mary Ann describes herself as a technique junkie, seldom settling down yet to pursue one aspect of jewelry-making, but always taking courses in new, unexplored techniques, sometimes taking multiple workshops during the course of a weekly class. Last spring, she took a course with Kelly Conroy \u2013 Transforming Natural Into Precious \u2013 and this fall repeated Jewelry 2 to work with Kelly again and learn flush setting and enameling. She also took workshops in setting sea glass and beach pebbles, pearl knotting, and Adrienne Sloane\u2019s Knitted Bracelets workshop. She volunteers that she appreciates Metalwerx for its supportive environment and student camaraderie, and that the teachers are enthusiastic and encouraging, and themselves seem to enjoy learning from their students.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalwerx.com\/blog\/Coffey-Corrugated-Bracelet.jpg\" alt=\"Mary Ann Coffey Corrugated Bracelet\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Mary Ann had taken time off work to raise twin boys, and is now exploring the possibility of working with reacHIRE, an organization which, as described on its website,\u00a0\u201cprepares exceptional women to return to work and then bridges their career gap with placement in a paid work assignment,\u201d an endeavor she is richly qualified for. But she says she feels at a crossroads in her life.\u00a0 She knows she would gain satisfaction from that valuable work, but would also like to sell her jewelry and possibly work in the jewelry industry somehow, and make this her life.\u00a0 There is always that\u00a0quandary of how &#8212; and is it even possible? &#8212; to make a living from our passions!<\/p>\n<p>We look forward to seeing Mary Ann many times in our classroom studio in the coming year!<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalwerx.com\/blog\/Coffey-Silver-Bead.jpg\" alt=\"Mary Ann Coffey Silver Bead\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><strong><em>By Julia Meyerson<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like other Metalwerx students, Mary Ann Coffey has turned to Metalwerx to explore and develop her creative instincts, following that irresistible path that leads to making things. Mary Ann graduated from UMass Amherst, earned an MBA from Babson College, and settled in Colorado, where she started her own computer service business.\u00a0There she took a class [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[66,81,82,83],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/metalwerx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/metalwerx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/metalwerx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/metalwerx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/metalwerx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1693"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/metalwerx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1708,"href":"http:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/metalwerx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693\/revisions\/1708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/metalwerx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/metalwerx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/metalwerx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}