Why Andover, NY?

By Stephen Walker

Walker Metalsmiths often seems out of place to outsiders. Why would someone start a business that makes fine jewelry in such a backwater place, so far from any urban sophistication? It will take you all day to get from Andover, NY to the Manhattan Diamond District. And the Celtic design specialty, wouldn't that be more for a place like Boston or Chicago? Wouldn't it make more sense for this Celtic jewelry workshop and gallery to be in a place like the Old First Ward of Buffalo, NY that is so Irish it has street signs in Gaelic. Why instead such an out-of-the-way place as Andover?

The simple answer is that this is where I live and where I want to stay. I was born in Syracuse, NY and came to Andover at age 11 when my father took a position at Alfred University. My interest in Celtic art began when my grandmother gave me a souvenir book about the Irish Book of Kells in 1968. When we came to Andover in 1969 I became the student of William "Scotty" MacCrea who was the art teacher for grades 1 to 12 at Andover Central School. Because of Mr. MacCrea's influence there was a lot of appreciation for Celtic art. He had embraced a Celtic style for his own art work and never missed an opportunity to encourage his students to follow that theme.

Allegany County: Where Regions Overlap

Andover (Village population 1,042) is in rural Allegany County (population 46,456), just 12 miles from the Pennsylvania line. Our county is considered part of Appalachia, but we are on the very edge both geographically and culturally. Economically we are more like the Great Lakes Rust Belt, but not fully. We are almost in the Finger Lakes Region, 45 miles to the nearest lake. Everything that defines a region, politically and geographically, we are at or near the edge, with the territories overlapping in different directions. We are the furthest west of the 607-area code. The furthest east of the Catholic Dioceses of Buffalo. Our Boy Scouts are part of the Allegheny Highlands Council that includes north-western Pennsylvania. The divide between the Genesee and Chesapeake watersheds is five miles to our east.

Andover's Celtic Heritage

Andover does have a strong Celtic heritage. There were a number of Scots among the earliest settlers with names like Campbell, McGregor, McDougall and others mixed in with the Yankee families that were the backbone of the early settlers. Officially the first white settler arrived in 1795. There were enough people in Andover to incorporate the village in 1824 and to organize the first church that same year. In 1849 a fairly large number of Irish arrived to build the railroad. By 1851 many of these Gaelic speaking Irish, mostly from County Mayo, had settled on farms in Andover and the surrounding townships. Many of Mr. MacCrea's students were descendants of this Celtic diaspora. An appreciation for Celtic art resonated with the pride of heritage for the Irish-American students at Andover Central School from the 1950s to the 1990s. Of course, this made for a great audience for my own Celtic designs.

Read about the International Day of Celtic Art Conference in Andover, NY (June 2019) →

From London Busker to Master Jeweler

After graduation from Andover Central School in 1975 I spent a year and a half in the British Isles. While I traveled to Scotland and Ireland I mostly stayed in London, where I made my way as a bagpipe busker. When I returned to the US I went to art college, majoring in metalsmithing and jewelry design. By the time I earned my Master of Fine Arts degree from SIU Carbondale I was married with a baby son. I then worked a year and a half for another craftsman before returning to Andover to start my own business at the beginning of 1984.

Building a Business & a Family

In Andover, we bought a house and had more babies, as well as building our business. At first, I was traveling to arts festivals around the US, but by 1997 we had a storefront showroom as well as a thriving mail-order business. My workshop was at One Main Street, right across from the Village Office, where my mother worked as Village Clerk until her retirement in 2000. When the Andover Village Office moved in 2018, we bought the building and refurbished it as our jewelry store.

All six of our children graduated from Andover. My wife Susan served on the School Board for 21 years. As President of the Board she personally awarded the diplomas to three of our kids. By 2019 I had grandchildren attending the same school.

A Great Place for Our Craft

Andover has been a great place for our business. Sure, if there was more tourism or a larger population, our walk-in business would do better. But we make up for that through this miracle of the Internet that makes the whole world potentially our audience. There is a vibrant community of other artists and craftsmen in the area. We have joined together for the annual Allegany Artisans Studio Tour each October, which brings many visitors to our workshop. The exposure and camaraderie of the Studio Tour was instrumental in establishing our workshop as a viable brick-and-mortar destination.

Small-Town Life Still Exists

Many people don't understand that this kind of small-town life still exists in America. You might think in stereotypes like Mayberry, but there aren't really towns like that anymore, are there? Not Mayberry exactly, but yes, something similar and half a century later. To get to Andover you will pass through many similar small towns and villages. Each has their own unique culture, schools, churches, clubs, businesses and families. In Andover I see people everyday that I have known for as long as fifty-five years. My customers, my apprentices, my friends and neighbors are interlaced in a network of community. The quaint explanation of the meaning of Celtic knotwork representing the interwovenness of life really works for us as a metaphor for my sense of belonging to a place and culture.

About Stephen Walker

Stephen Walker holds an MFA in Metalsmithing from Southern Illinois University. He is co-author of The Modern History of Celtic Jewellery: 1840-1980 and serves on the advisory panel for the George Bain Collection at Groam House Museum, Scotland. He has been handcrafting Celtic jewelry in Andover, NY since 1984.

Meet Stephen & Susan Walker →