Daniel Marinelli, proprietor of OK Goods, and Shelly Maynard discuss sculpture in Marinelli’s studio during the open house celebration at Taylors Mill Friday.Leah Phillips gazes at artwork on display in one of the common areas at Taylors Mill during the celebration on Friday.From left: Laurel Bishop, artist, discusses her work with Ruthann Devine as  Devine selects a work for purchase.

Taylors Mill: Celebrating craftsmen of the past and present

Amanda Irwin's picture
By: 
Amanda Irwin

Since the textile industry in the Upstate dwindled, local buildings have been demolished, abandoned or repurposed for residential use.

Few have continued to foster the craftsmanship they once did.

Taylors Mill, though, has continued to serve as a home for artists and craftsman alike.

Last week, in celebration, vendors, artists and tenants opened their shops and welcomed the public for “Taylors Mill 50 Years Later: Making Then & Making Now.”

“It is the 50th anniversary of the closing of the (Taylors) Southern Bleachery this summer. With the new life at the Taylors Mill, we felt like it was a rather poetic opportunity,” said Alex Reynolds, president of Taylors Town Square Board of Directors.

The bleachery, which first opened in 1924, had an addition build in 1928 and continued expanding through the 1940s dyeing and printing products produced at other textile mills.

The facility remained operational until 1965 and has served in several different capacities since, but when Kenneth Walker purchased one portion of the mill in 2006 and another in 2008, he began leasing spaces to small businesses, primarily artists and craftsmen.

“It was sort of as a necessity because I didn’t have deep pockets and I had all this space and people just started coming. Phone call after phone call wanting space,” said Walker. “It was really a necessity of doing it slowly, and then people like Mike (Vatalaro) and several other people here – it just evolved.”

Vatalaro is a tenant of Taylors Mill, where he works out of his pottery shop, Vatalaro Studio.

Vatalaro began pottery in the 70s making sculptural and function pieces inspired by different time periods and cultures.

“In pottery, when you center something, it’s called centering. You have to start from the center. And not to put too fine a point on it, but the same thing is true in life. If you’re not centered, you will go off kilter. The idea of using the center, the symbolic center and the actual center of a potter’s wheel, and then generating forms that both spin off as well as come back together, is behind all of these works,” he said.

The same logic seems to represent Taylors Mill as it continues to evolve an grow, again becoming a purposeful facility.

“As a retiree I wanted to make my work, and so I found this great space here, and it was affordable…,” he said. “I could’ve done this in my back yard. I could’ve built a building and did the whole thing there because in many cases that’s what you have to do. But the opportunity was to be able to share some time and space with other artists.

“It truly was organic and just sort of energies building on each other without anybody coming in with the idea of ‘I’m going to renovate and throw $40 million at this and I’m going to charge you $2,000 a month for your apartment, which isn’t a bad thing, but it was very different than the sensibility here,” Vatalaro added.

Despite having to overcome zoning issues and Walker’s decision to sell the facility Greg Cotton and Caleb Louis, the historic building continues to serve as an artists’ community.

“I sold this big part, so I think it was just time to let somebody take the reigns and take it on, and I think they’ve got the same vision,” Walker said.

The mill is home to more than 30 artists and craftsmen ranging from potters to graphic designers to woodworkers to letterpress printers.

Friday’s event welcomed additional artists who hosts tents featuring woodwork, metalwork, paintings, candles and jewelry.

For more information about the Taylors Mill and upcoming events, visit taylorsmillproperties.com.

airwin@greercitizen.com | 877-2076

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