Linu Boutique carries some of the finest, most unique, and hard-to-find jewelry around. Rosario Merola’s jewelry are stunning, contemporary, wearable art. Please read more about Merola’s jewelry and influences below.

Rosario Merola first became interested in jewelry because his mother has a great passion for beautiful and unique pieces. Since he was a small child, he accompanied her in her tours of museums, fairs and jewelry stores in Italy near Casapulla, where he was born, and Sicily, where he grew up.

After high school, Rosario enrolled in a goldsmith course in Naples at the Scuola d’Arte Orafa Meridionale, where he met maestro Teresi, a professor of the art of jewelry. Maestro Teresi’s works and techniques strongly influenced him, and after only eight months of school, he transferred to Teresi’s private workshop, where he continued his studies as apprentice for three extremely intense years. Since completing his studies, Rosario has worked in Montoro, Caserta (Tari’), and Arezzo in Italy, Antwerp in Belgium and Philadelphia in the United States. Beginning this year, he has become a member of the Associazione Gioiello Contemporaneo (AGC). AGC is an organization active in Italy with the aim of promoting and giving value to jewelry as a form of art.

The artists Cepka and Persoon have influenced Rosario’s sense of design, in addition to Dau, Pinton and Giampaolo Babetto, in their ability to integrate classical ideas into modern styles. He likes to create jewelry from unexpected combinations of precious and non-precious material in forms well beyond traditional jewelry concepts. His work is contemporary, geometric and simple in style and feeling. He uses high carat gold, silver, wood, aluminum and plexiglass. Recently, he has begun to integrate steel, because of its strength and resemblance to white gold or platinum, with gemstone beads, because he loves their various colors in his design. He now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan where he has his own studio. All of Rosario’s pieces are made by hand.