Charles

“I started arranging silk flowers just as a joke. Some family and friends were having a Christmas decorating contest a few years ago, and I decided I’d try to outdo my sister and sister-in-law. They did that kind of thing all the time, but I never had. It took me three months to get everything ready. The night of the contest, we went from house to house, and I made sure mine was last on the list. Relatives said, ‘You better have something over there, Charles, with all this talking you’re doing!’ At the next to last house, my wife and I left early and went home. I put on my tuxedo; I was so nervous I could barely tie the tie. My wife got the music ready and then turned off the lights. I know everybody was expecting me to be crazy and jump out at them in some kind of costume; that’s just the kind of guy I am. But when everyone got there, I greeted them at the door and said, very formally: ‘This was designed by Charles Taylor!’ I had arranged a signal with my wife, and when I said a certain word, she turned on the lights, the jazz music started, and everybody was like, ‘Wow! Wow!’ The women kept looking around and saying, ‘That’s GOOD! That’s GOOD!’ I really had expected them to laugh, but they didn’t. I thought I was playing a joke on them, but it turned out, the joke was on me: they actually liked what I had done. I certainly hadn’t intended on selling anything that night, but people wanted to buy the arrangements. I thought maybe they just didn’t want to embarrass me, so I told my wife, ‘Let’s enter a crafts show where no one knows me. If we can sell there, then I’ll know for sure.’ That’s what started it all. I’ve been doing silk arrangements and painting furniture ever since. People bring me things and say, ‘Can you make something out of this?’ My wife, a retired police officer, finds all kinds of treasures too. I work on them in the evenings and on weekends, and we have this booth [at the Sheffield Antiques Mall in Collierville]. I can’t even bring myself to buy new stuff anymore. With new stuff, you haven’t done anything. The work you put into something makes it beautiful.
 
“I'm an admissions director at a mental health facility, but I've always loved working with my hands, so I also teach a 2-hour class there every week called Self-Expression Through Art. It’s soothing, spiritually uplifting, and helps patients to relax. We do string art, papier mache, free drawing, and other things; it just depends on the patients and their needs. It’s a great feeling, seeing them socializing, creating, and getting better. There’s beautiful stuff coming out of them.”

Charles Taylor, Silk flower arrangements & distressed furniture
Sheffield Antiques Mall, 684 W. Poplar Avenue, Collierville

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