Since 1963, Winston-Salem, North Carolina has been home to Piedmont Craftsmen, Inc., a guild founded by craft artists and collectors to honor the work of the hand.

Today, Piedmont Craftsmen represents nearly four hundred of the Southeast's most talented artisans. Exhibiting members are juried into the organization on the basis of their skill, professionalism, quality, and originality by a standards committee made up of exhibiting craftsmen. Their work includes fine handmade garments, jewelry, one-of-a-kind functional housewares and beautiful decorative objects.

At the beginning of a new millenium the consumer market is dominated by mass-produced goods and computer-generated imagery, and our daily lives are filled with objects which have rendered themselves invisible by the very nature of their plastic perfection. There are still some individuals creating hand-wrought, beautifully designed and crafted objects, and there are people and organizations that celebrate the combination of spirit, craftsmanship, and aesthetics that go into the making of those objects.

The organization carries on a centuries-old regional tradition dating back to the eighteenth century when the first Moravian settlers established their workshops, laid out their garden plots, and set up housekeeping in the lovely rolling hills of the Piedmont. Furniture makers, potters, weavers, metalsmiths and glassblowers, their goods were recognized as the finest available in the southeast.

The organization conducts workshops, mounts exhibitions, and operates a gallery and shop at 601 North Trade Street in Winston-Salem, NC. Shop hours are Tuesday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  For more information about membership in Piedmont Craftsmen, call (336)725-1516.