Notching a name for itself in an abundance of similar seasonal events, Tryon’s Arts & Flowers Festival combines a spring plant show with a spring craft show — an idea so natural it’s surprising it doesn’t happen more often. Among all the Southeastern vendors — painters, carvers, potters, welders, and growers — Dan Taylor of Greenville, SC, unites the theme on a micro level. The glass artisan’s planters hang pendant style, exuding architectural savvy in their dimensions and also taking advantage of horticulture fashions.
“I noticed that air plants were trending,” says Taylor, “and I came up with a design to hold one.” (Bromeliads get their water and nutrients through their own leaves; though they come in hundreds of varieties, many have a similar look marked by graceful, twisting foliage.) His first air-plant container hit big, staying on ETSY’s home page for almost nine months and receiving 34,000 “favorite” designations.
Taylor’s trajectory was swift. “I cut my first piece of stained glass back in 2009, after treating myself to some used equipment and supplies I found online,” he recalls. “Within a few months, I purchased some more supplies, and in this batch there was a box of 2-inch beveled glass squares.” Echoing the paper polyhedrons he’d made in grade school, Taylor applied the shapes to three-dimensional beveled glass orbs.
The orbs morphed into the planters — and those vessels grew into a full-time business, Oriskany Glass Studio. “With the success of the planters, I was able to move into a commercial space,” says Taylor. Soon afterward, he quit his day job. The artisan’s newest designs mix glass and wood “for a mid-century-modern look,” he explains.
The main appeal of air plants lies in their easy care; they require a weekly bath of about 10-20 minutes before being shaken out and returned to their home. So despite the labor inherent in glassworking, Taylor knew the end product should stay simple. “When designing the planter,” he says, “I had to make it easy to maintain.”
The Arts & Flowers Festival, sponsored by the Tryon Arts & Crafts School, happens Saturday, April 22 (10am-5pm) and Sunday, April 23 (11am-5pm), at Harmon Field in Tryon. www.tryonartsandcrafts.org. (For more information about Dan Taylor’s work, check ETSY or see oriskanyglass.com.)