Jennifer Petrila

Jennifer Petrila is a metalsmith with 46 years of experience. She started when she was eight years old and for the first eight years specialized in bladesmithing.  At age 16 she was approached by a carpenter about making colonial hardware and then spent years perfecting what she considers one of the hardest aspects of forging metal and that is hardware. Every facet of forging hardware is about moving the metal in a direction it does not want to go. Currently Jennifer is building a metal working school at her home that will be based on trade smithing which she coined as a phrase meaning “I specialize in the forging of metal”.  Jennifer takes concepts and brings them to life.  She particularly enjoys teaching, demonstrating and showing skills rarely seen in public.