Appalachia
Creating Conditions Favorable for Community Life
Hand-Crafted Appalachian Gifts
When you shop at our Appalachian Fair Trade Store, you are not only purchasing outstanding art and crafts made by the hands and heart, you are helping a neighbor. Virtually every item you will find here is made in Appalachia. Following is a sampling of what is in stock. Check back regularly, as we are adding hand-crafted items on a regular basis.
Art
We recently welcomed a new artist, Tonja Smith, who did the illustrations for Tony Deal’s book, “But that’s not true!” Her work is now on display.
Books
Gretchen Griffith books: Called to the Mountain, Fly Fishermen of Caldwell County, Fly Fishers of the Caldwell County Area, Southern Fly Tyers, Separated by Oceans but Connected by Love, The Physician and the Forester, and With God and My Mother’s Prayers.
FOOTHILLS WRITERS: Carol Starr, Ripples (poetry); Karin Seuren Davidson, I Walk Through Silent Woods (poetry); Lucy Wilkes, Trev Tracker and Cackle, Packle and Friends; Thomas Blanton, On the Other Hand, Sermons Preached in a Country Church, The Unintentional Gospel, Ridge Runner and Who Killed Me?; and, the Foothills Writers: Our Foothills Vol. IV and Things That Haunt Us.
Tony Deal’s modern fable, But that’s not true is available; so is Michael Barrick’s Fractured Sanctuary.
Fiber Arts
Karin Davidson will be demonstrating her weaving skills every Thursday beginning in September. Her offerings include shawls, shawl pins, pin cushions, fingerless gloves and goat milk soap.
Fishing Flies
We are pleased to now be carrying fishing flies made by David Anders.
Jewelry
Amber Shoemake offers a wide arrange of colorful and unique bracelets, earrings and necklaces.
Tinctures & Wood Products
Herbalist Barbara Volk of West Virginia provides us with tinctures and ointment. You can learn about Barbara here, here, and here. Her products sit on a Katalox wood table with hairpin legs, hand crafted by Allyn Barrick. For sale.
We are also pleased to offer Our State magazine for sale.
Check back soon for an updated Calendar of Events
Social Enterprise
We embrace a market solution because it will help ensure that Appalachian folkways are preserved and cherished as people learn that they can help sustain themselves through their own creative efforts, whether such creativity is demonstrated in song on the fiddle, on wood with acrylic paint or in the soil with seeds. This method of matching experts with apprentices is ancient, proven, and a lovely use of talented people often overlooked.
Fair Trade Arts & Crafts
We offer a mix of retail products, concerts, plays, provide learning opportunities, and partner with existing individuals, groups and institutions so that Appalachians can exhibit their talents and earn money.
Our partners wish to pass on vital Appalachian traditions and folkways to subsequent generations. The intention is to create opportunities for cottage industries to emerge to the benefit of Appalachian communities.
Lenoir Artist Fellowship
Teachers, musicians, artists, poets, actors, directors, potters, sculptors and others involved in the creative and performing arts are essential for a vibrant, energetic community. We are committed to helping established and emerging artists to move towards establishing their own cottage industries.
Appalachia’s greatest abundance is her people. Our people are abundantly talented and resourceful. It is only a matter of cultivating and gathering the talent. That is the purpose of LAF.
Grassroots Appalachia 