Rock & Metal Treasures: Art From the Heart

 Rock & Metal Treasures is one of many small businesses in Huntington. We recently asked its owners about the business.

Q.: Tell us about the ownership—you and your other partners.
A.: Rock & Metal Treasures is our new local business being run out of our home in Huntington Station. I am Deborah Porretto, the artist, graphic designer, photographer and the creator of Angel Jewelry. I hand-craft Angel Necklaces, Angel Keychains, Angel Pins, Angel Bracelets and Road Angels to hang from your rear view mirror. My wife and partner Lisa Karrer is my sounding board, the person who I am constantly bouncing ideas off of and who offers her unending emotional and moral support to me and my passion for creating meaningful art and the growth of our business.

Q.: When did you open for business? What made you think of this business? How did you get started?
A.: We started as a fundraiser in June 2011 to raise money and to show support for my dear friend an FDNY 911  paramedic who was diagnosed with cancer after working at Ground Zero in the days and weeks after September 11th. I came up with an original idea of how I could be supportive and help her to win her battle. I remembered how she loved collecting nuts and bolts as a child and carried them around in her pockets wherever she went. She always told me how she felt protected by an angel in a few instances in her life when she was near death. It was at that point when it all came together. I wanted to design an Angel Necklace with a wingnut as the angel wings. I used my dad’s old wingnuts and other miscellaneous metal pieces that I had collected.

 I thought that making these Angel Necklaces would not only be a way of honoring her service as a NYC paramedic but these angels could possibly raise some money to help ease her financial burden while trying to beat her cancer. We had a very successful fundraiser, raising about $2,000 donated by family, friends and her co-workers. We are so happy that she is now cancer free even though every day is a struggle for her.

 In the process of doing this we received such wonderful feedback on the unique wingnut design and we were told several stories of how these Angels had helped so many other people in the process. This simple but powerful symbol represents different things to different people. These personalized angels offer strength and hope to people suffering through cancer or addiction. They respresent love and memory that a lost loved one will always be with them. They represent inspiration for the heroic efforts of our first responders and the memory of all the innocent lives lost on September 11th.

In 2012 I officially started our company Rock & Metal Treasures.

Q: How is the economy treating you? Do you expect to expand in the coming year?
A.: It is extremely difficult starting and maintaining a small business with no money to speak of. Up to this point we have been putting much more money into the business then we are making. Especially with the economic situation over the past few years it has been a struggle to keep our household afloat on one income let alone start and maintain a business.

My dream is to expand our business over the next few years by acquiring a bigger work space so I can incorporate more metal work and personalized metal stamping to enhance each angel piece that I create. 

Q.: Are you doing as well or what you expected to be doing when you started your business?
A.: To be honest I didn’t know where the business would go when we started it but over the past several months we have been overwhelmed and touched by the reaction and appreciation of our angels. I feel satisfied that I have finally succeeded in being able to create art with meaning.

Q.: What else do you want to say about your business?
A.: We have reached out to the Treanor & Gaines families who have suffered through the horrible loss of their children in the boating accident here on Long Island last July. We made special keychains in honor of Harlie Treanor and Victoria Gaines and are honored to have worked with both families creating personalized hand made Angels in memory of Harlie & Victoria for their fundraisers.

We are also proud and honored to have our Angel Jewelry included in the National September 11 Memorial & Museum Artists Registry, a virtual art gallery for art created in response to the events of September 11th.  https://www.911memorial.org/registry/dporretto

Q.: What advice would you give someone else thinking about starting a business?
A.: My advice would be to start a business that you are passionate about because it takes an enormous amount of time and dedication to make it successful. I am hopeful that people will see something special in what I create and want to spread the word and share the simple but thoughtful gift of an angel with a friend or a loved one who just might need that small spark of hope to save them.