With a pair of mammoth scissors, a plethora of peonies, and a super-abundance of friends and family, Danielle Merzatta celebrated a homecoming this week.
After nearly a decade on the arts-and-craft show circuit, she and her husband Chris have decided to sell their jewelry the old-fashioned way.
Their new shop, Merzatta at 4CattanoAve, sits on a quaint Morristown side street that quietly is gaining the sort of cachet that befits the couple’s one-of-a-kind creations.
“Sixteen-foot windows on Cattano with north light is not something you can say no to easily,” said Danielle.
“So we said yes,” interjected Chris, clutching their overgrown puppy Roxy while daughter Laurily, 8, assisted Mayor Tim Dougherty with Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting chores.
The Merzattas specialize in fine jewelry cast from carved natural forms, often featuring rare gems. Their shop also showcases pieces by San Francisco jeweler Maya Kini; clothing by Anne Bisone, a zero-waste Milwaukee designer; and cabinets by Morristown woodworker Mickey McCann.
“This selection is about bringing some of the best that we’ve found in the country home–while we just admit that we live here and love it here,” said Danielle, who graduated from Morristown High School, a block away, in 2001.
The Mt. Tabor couple opened a Morristown studio on Elm Street last year. Their partnership runs so deep, they even merged monikers. “Merzatta” is a mashup of Allatta–Danielle’s maiden name–and Merz, Chris’ surname.
Cattano Avenue neighbors The Artist Baker and the Fig & Lily Garden catered the celebration. The brick-lined jewelry store shares a rear courtyard with En Masse Coworking, which opened in January and plans to expand.
Former Morristown High theater director Mike McGuire, who started the event company Produced by Primates, helped bedeck the Merzattas’ entrance with flowers from Peony’s Envy in Bernardsville.
Guests included representatives of the Morristown Partnership, Morris Arts, the Mayo Performing Arts Center and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, where Laurily sings in the choir.
The mayor touted Merzatta at 4CattanoAve as another reason to explore the downtown.
“What a great addition to Cattano Avenue, and to the town of Morristown,” Dougherty said, as his wife, Morristown First Lady Mary Dougherty, prepared to browse the shop.
“This is the kind of stuff that we’ve been working for a decade to bring to fruition, and we’re seeing it right in front of our eyes,” said the mayor, thanking the Merzattas for coming home.
