AMERICAN
MAKER STYLE
FOR THE
CONTEMPORARY
MARKET
Crafting Partnerships
Craft & Forge partners with artisans, designers, and brands to develop historically inspired collections through creative collaboration and licensing. Together, we connect today's makers with the living traditions, extraordinary collections, and expert knowledge of Colonial Williamsburg to create products with enduring beauty, purpose, and story.
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​​Our partners have access to an extraordinary community of master tradespeople, curators, conservators, historians, archaeologists, and one of the nation's most significant collections of American decorative arts. Together, we create products with authentic stories, thoughtful design, and a connection to craftsmanship that cannot be replicated.
Traditional skills are at risk of being lost to time
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One goal of Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Trades program is to ensure that younger generations continue to research, preserve, and practice historic and increasingly rare trades.
Giving Back
Every Craft & Forge collaboration helps sustain the educational mission of Colonial Williamsburg. Together with our partners, we help preserve traditional trades, support the artisans who practice them, and ensure these remarkable skills continue to inspire future generations.
We can purchase seeds and plants for the 85 historic gardens of Colonial Williamsburg.
The native and exotic flora that were grown by the colonists require extensive care and ongoing research.
Historic
Gardens
Secure and store rare wood supplies used by cabinetmakers and joiners, yarn and dye for the weavers, seeds and plants for the historic gardens are just a few examples.
Securing
Supplies
We can secure and store rare wood supplies used by cabinetmakers and joiners, purchase yarn and dye for the weavers, and deer hides for leather artisans.
Securing
Supplies
Master tradesman, journeymen and apprentices are supported in professional development opportunities to ensure the preservation of knowledge and skills.
Professional
Development
Apprentice Tinsmith
Jenny Lynn
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Collaborations help the tinsmiths rediscover a dying trade by allowing us to purchase specialty materials, like lead-free solder and hot-dipped, tin-plated iron, or even common materials like firewood and charcoal, for our daily work at the Anderson Armory Tin Shop, the only 18th-century Tin Shop in a museum in the United States.