Vivacious, enthusiastic, eclectic, and genuine. These words come to mind when one meets artist Lynda Sheil. Ms. Sheil, together with her son Michael, are co-owners of Euro Ports, creating designer quality art for the home and garden.

Their materials are iron and heavy steel, which Michael welds, forming into unique shapes such as room dividers, benches, chairs & tables. Ms. Sheil works with what she calls "once-loved furniture," otherwise known as antiques. She talked about several of the vintage pieces while elaborating on the life of being an artist. Ms. Sheil's work is displayed in the gift shop at the Blackstone Valley Visitors Center.

Each piece of art is unique, Ms. Sheil said, noting that "art is supposed to imitate life, and life is not perfect."

Ms. Sheil carefully shapes the vintage furniture until it becomes united with her special vision for the piece. She uses layers of custom glazes, faux metal work and decoupaged papers to make a piece come alive. She says she rejects rollers when decoupaging, preferring to use her hands as the tool.

On one 1930s piece, she used four coats of glaze over handblocked paper, and plans to eventually put glass over the ornate paper. Another exquisite chair had hand beading added along the front of the seat. On another elegant chair, Lynda had under painted the chair arms turquoise, applied silver leaf, before stripping it off.

Michael, 28, is the chief engineer and welder, and designs custom pieces such as iron fish tables, five-foot obelisks, and spinning carousels. He used to run his own comic book company, but began working with his mother in the family business after an automobile accident.

Now, mother and son have done many shows together, including the Brimfield Antiques Show and the Rhode Island Spring Flower and Garden Show. Although the have different styles and approaches to their work, their combination has proven to be successful. For instance, Lynda says she will begin folding a tarp from the left, while Michael will start from the right. Somehow, the tarp gets folded.

Ms. Sheil discovered the name for her creations after one of her designer friends mentioned that the iron works are the first things she used to start a room, or the last things to end one. Ms. Sheil related that to putting on jewelry, in that she would either lay out the jewelry first or put it on last. So she felt she would call her creations "Room Jewelry".

Ms. Sheil maintains a studio in East Bridgewater. Her work will be on display at the Central Massachusetts Spring Flower Show, to be held this Thursday through Sunday at the Worcester Centrum Centre.

The Blackstone Valley Visitors Center, located at 175 Main St., Pawtucket, R.I., can be contacted at (401)724-2200, or on the Web at www.slatermill.org The Sheils'Web site is www.euroports.biz.