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WILLIAM
LABERGE
Cabinetmaker, Inc.
Modern
furniture inspired by the Shaker and Arts and Crafts traditions.
Commissions welcomed.
5145
Route 30
Dorset VT 05251
802-325-2117
bill@WilliamLaberge.com
http://www.WilliamLaberge.com
William
Laberge spent his childhood in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. He received a B.A.
in Mass Communications from the University of Vermont in 1982, then moved
on to New York city to pursue a career in fillmmaking. After the fast
pace of working on feature films for five years, and wanting to return
to more traditional values and a more tangible existence, he moved back
to Vermont to raise a family.
William
makes furniture and accessories in the Arts-and-Crafts and Shaker traditions,
colonial reproductions, and custom designs. He learned the craft by spending
several years as an apprentice under a master cabinetmaker. He then set
up his own workshop in 1990. He has exhibited at the Stratton Arts Festival
as well as Southern Vermont Art Center, the Helen Day Art Center, the
Brattleboro Museum, The Design Showcase in Madison, CT, and Vermont State
Craft Centers at Frog Hollow in Manchester, Middlebury and Burlington
and the Hawthorne Gallery in Woodstock, NY.
He
was commissioned by the Equinox Hotel to hand craft furniture in the Arts-and-Crafts
style for the Green Mountain Suite and several of his pieces of furniture
reside at Yale University. He made an ornament for the White House Christmas
tree and has recently built a Vestibule for the Dominican Church of St.
Vincent Ferrer, in New York City. "I believe furniture ought to be
made to last for generations. We must live with it, therefore it must
be designed and constructed so that over the years it becomes a part of
the family. After a long day, when we sit on or next to a piece, we should
relax as if we're with an old friend. "With that in mind, my pieces
are almost exclusively solid hardwood, constructed with classic mortise
and tenon joinery and designed to account for expansion and contraction
as the piece lives and breathes. Each piece of wood is chosen and placed
to create a quality piece of furniture with subtle sophistication. There
is something comforting about a piece which has strength and which we
know will outlast us all."
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