MILTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Scrap pieces of metal get a new lease on life thanks to Chuck and Maureen Jocelyns’ 802 Metal Art. They never know what they’re going to make until they start welding it together.
For the Jocelyns, welding is a way of life.
“I’ve been in and around metal shops my whole life,” Chuck Jocelyn said. “Maureen was making jewelry and she finally said I don’t want to make jewelry anymore, I want to do what you’re doing and I said sure, so she got her own bench, some safety glasses and gloves and she started doing it,” Chuck Jocelyn said of how they got their start.
Together they sift through junk metal looking for inspiration, seeing beyond the trash to the creatures trapped inside, which they say keeps the sparks flying.
“We go around to yard sales, do dumpster diving, so that’s our date night, honestly it is. It still works for us that one of us finds a new dumpster and we’re like, I got a dumpster tonight and we have to get into that. The cops have been called only once on us and we talked our way out of it. But, we try to go in dumpsters where we’re allowed for the art,” the Jocelyns said.
Over the past few years, they’ve amassed a maze of junk pieces that they can turn into anything.
“People love to give us junk that they think might go into the landfill. I’ll come home from work and there’ll be scrap metal in my driveway so it’s always a surprise to us as it is with everybody else with what we end up with,” Chuck Jocelyn said.
802 Metal Art lets the scraps speak for themselves. Working side by side, the Jocelyns have developed a unique art style.
“We don’t collaborate on anything, we make our own items,” Chuck Jocelyn said. “Mine are a bit more odd I think. Maureen makes more whimsical, colorful things and I make a lot of animals like goats, cows and pigs. Maureen is more liable to go completely off and make something weird and strange and people like that. The weirder it is, the more they like it,” Chuck Jocelyn said.
Weird and whimsical or fun and familiar, they sell hundreds of pieces a year at craft shows, flea markets and fairs. Their mission remains the same, saving good junk from being lost to the landfill and turning it into something that can spark joy.
Copyright 2026 WCAX. All rights reserved.