Fiddler's Elbow, Company

If you travel north from New York City to Washington County, you will come to a charming, rural area in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains. Here, nestled between dairy farms and back country roads is Fiddler's Elbow®. More than three decades ago, John Gunther started the silk-screening company with a handful of workers in an old barn that once housed 10,000 chickens. Now we are celebrating our 38th year in business.

He conceived the idea in 1973 after a visit to the Museum of the City of New York, where he viewed an exhibition of 19th century cloth toys intricately printed using an antiquated process of hand engraved copper rollers. John's mission was to revive this art form using modern silk-screening techniques. This proved to be challenging, as there was no one experienced in full color textile printing, no school to consult. Fiddler's Elbow developed the process the hard way, through constant experimentation and soon became the best reproduction silk-screen printer in the country.

Thirty eight years later, we are still a family operated design and manufacturing company dedicated to producing well Made in the USA Hand Printed Gifts. Our product line has shifted from cloth storybook characters under the banner of The Toy Works®, to gifts and home décor which necessitated a change of name to Fiddler's Elbow.

We continue to manufacture at our facilities in Middle Falls, New York and offer products that are functional, decorative, reasonably priced and delivered in a timely fashion. Our designs universally appeal to the art, pet and nature lover. We hope that you enjoy our products as much as we enjoy designing and making them for you and welcome the opportunity to become one of your preferred suppliers.