If you love original art and fine crafts and are living or visiting the Triangle area of North…read moreCarolina, then downtown Pittsboro, and The Joyful Jewel need to be on your #mustvisit list. It's about a 40 minute drive from downtown Raleigh NC without traffic, but only 25 minutes from Chapel Hill or downtown Apex, NC. Any direction you drive to Pittsboro from you cross beautiful country side, forests, hills and rivers, and coming from the East, (Apex, Cary, Holly Springs, Fuquay Varina), you're in real luck, you get to cross over Jordan Lake twice.
Pittsboro retains its small town USA feel, and the Joyful Jewel is just across the street from the historic Chatham County Courthouse which houses a historical museum open 2 - 3 times a week. But the Joyful Jewel is open 7 days a week.
I have visited hundreds of times over the 12 years I have been living in central North Carolina because I so enjoy walking about the store, as if it were a museum, and taking in the colors, imagination, creativity and inspiration. Artists take turns in the store, so you get to meet an artist whose work is there. Mariah Wheeler is the owner, with her husband DG Chandler. Both are jewelers, but work in other forms as well.
The affordability of art and fine crafts is one of the best discoveries for me, making a visit to the Joyful Jewel even better than a museum, since I may be able to take home the piece of art that really speaks to me.
And if you're looking to learn more about local artists, Mariah is very well connected, not only to artist who paint, and potters, and glass artists, but also local writers, poets and musicians.
Discover Pittsboro and definitely visit the Joyful Jewel.
