LOCALadk Magazine

44 Spring 2016 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk Lauren McGovern, jewelry maker Wilmington A Wilmington resident since 1994, Lauren McGovern credits her job as a counselor at North Country School — an indepen- dent boarding and day school for students in grades 4-9 in Lake Placid — for jump-starting her interest in creative pur- suits. It began when McGovern wanted to expand her skills making basic beaded jewelry in order to teach an experiential course during the school's Intersession week. She co-taught the course with Jay artist Jennifer Chasalow VanBenschoten and prepared by working her way through the processes of lamp- work (making glass beads with a blow torch), bead weaving techniques, and fusing glass. Out of those new techniques, fusing glass impressed her as the most accessible and inter- esting to her, so she continued with that medium. She has studied with artisan Nancy Miller in Saratoga Springs, and fo- cuses on designing and using jewelry from bronze and sterling silver metal clays. She has incorporated metal clay pieces into many jewelry offerings. McGovern's business name, Beads from the Barn, refers to the 1920s barn her family has renovated. From the barn, Mc- Govern works in her studio, where the hay pulley is still visi- ble from the beams. You can find McGovern's work at the Jay Craft Center, 2 Loons Apothecary in AuSable Forks, Saranac Lake Art Walks, the November craft fair at Congregation Beth Israel in Plattsburgh. William Coffey, furniture maker Northville Website: www.williamcoffeystudio.com/ The Adirondacks Mountains have become the ideal home to William Coffey, who defines his award-winning work as "the intersection of contemporary and rustic." The inspiration for his designs is a fusion of more than three decades in the New York City area, followed by nearly two decades in the Adiron- dacks. He was introduced to woodworking at the age of 12, sweeping floors in a wood shop owned by a family friend. This eventual- ly led to an apprenticeship on weekends and summers during which time he nurtured an appreciation for furniture and for design. After earning a degree from The Germain School of Photography, he went on to open his first shop in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where he designed and made furniture as well as being a fabricator in a small steel shop while living in Queens.

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