From Jet Engines to Jewelry, Novis Draws on Engineering Background

Ari Novis: My father was an artist and my brother had really artistic skill; I didn't.

Regan Trenchard: Ari Novis is among many of our employees here at Pratt & Whitney who enjoy indulging in a hobby or two after a hard day's work. Ari's hobby, however, stems from his engineering background as he winds wire and cuts coil to the exact thousandth of an inch to create his unique chainmail necklaces and bracelets.

Ari Novis: As a job I work in trade compliance, and we only have one kind of answer - we have to have the right answer, and that's the same thing with this, with this hobby, with these pieces. So in some ways it's like what we do here with jet engines. You have to be exact. There's no close. It has to be exact.

Regan Trenchard: Ari keeps several of his pieces on display at Wesleyan Potters in Middletown, Connecticut, where his wife first showcased a stunning chainmail necklace, bringing attention to Ari's unique talent.

Ari Novis: When I first saw other pieces of work like this, I said, 'That's something I really want to do. But now I have to go figure out how to do it.' And maybe that's the engineer in me, is to work through all the details to figure out how to do it. It gives me a chance to do something with my hands, to create things, and to take my mind off of the day-to-day stuff. So it's an escape valve for what I do.