Savvy Restyle Market perfects the art of the upcycle

In a former life there must have been a serenade for dancing lovers. The ivories were tickled at some point, no doubt.

Perhaps they stirred emotion. Perhaps they broadened horizons. Perhaps they called a chorus to croon Christmas carols.

Their early chapters were lost when the pianos arrived at a second-hand junk store in Easley, but the stories of their keys are still being told.

Malia Schopf recycles them — upcycles them — into art, decorative racks and more, and they are inspiring again.

A few booths over from Schopf, Dianne Chaney creates new life for the abandoned, too. She refurbishes furniture in shabby-chic style — chairs, tables, knickknacks.

Her Greer neighbor, Stacy Moldthan, displays a different talent at another booth. She makes and sells gluten-free and special-diet cakes, cookies, pies and the like.

The entrepreneurs are a just few Heidi Henry brings together regularly in her own business enterprise, Savvy Restyle Market, a collaboration of varied vendors who open shop once a month, typically at Taylors Mill, which itself is being reborn as a home for artisans and small businesses after decades of decay that followed years of operation as Southern Bleachery and Print Works.

But issues at the sprawling 827,000-square-foot mill have left Savvy Restyle to adapt. Greenville County officials have issued a stop-work order at the mill, which is listed on state and national registers of historic places, bringing a halt to renovations until owner Kenneth Walker has plans approved and work completed to bring the property in line with designated building codes.

So Henry, a Bob Jones University graduate and former nurse who had to be evacuated from a mission in Liberia during civil war, is falling back on skills that have served her well no matter her task: flexibility and leadership.

She set up the market outside the mill, in a parking lot, last month. This weekend she takes it to its original home in Greer, where a pop-up appearance on Trade Street amid Christmas celebrations will allow vendors and customers to continue the monthly relationships they've developed since May.​

Future plans are still in the works, but Henry is determined. She's prepared to adapt however possible —wherever — until she obtains a certificate of occupancy and a green light to bring the market inside the mill.

For $50 she sells vendors space for two days at the alternative boutique that's continued to grow while going without its intended home.

"It's just a business hub where people can come meet artisans," said Henry, a 47-year-old Reidville resident whose husband, Auckie, has helped Walker with mill renovations. "DIY (do-it-yourself) is like a $6 billion market right now. The recession, I think, really spun that forward. There are people out there creating things just for their own home, because of Pinterest. All of a sudden their friends are buying it, and they realize that they can do this and they can sell it, thanks to Etsy.

"These people now are looking for something local," she said. "I'm giving them a venue."

Savvy Restyle is an event and venue that pops up once a month. "The buyers that are buying on Etsy can now come local and feel and touch it," she said. And the money goes back into the local economy.

Her business venture allows other entrepreneurs to benefit from the strength of community and to realize greater profits through a low-overhead sales option, she said.

Art, furniture and foodstuff are only some of the locally handcrafted items for sale. Wooden kitchen utensils carved by a lawyer in Greer are available, as are oyster knives and decorative triangles from a retired blacksmith. Salvaged barbershop chairs and Italian fabrics nabbed by local pickers are available, too.

The variety has left Henry struggling at times to market the market.

"I'm very careful not to say 'art market,' and I'm very careful not to say 'craft market,' because 'craft' just reminds me of the '80s or maybe the '70s," Henry said. "There's nothing bad about that, but there's just something about it — I don't know. It's a mentality thing.

"I just think it's a specialized market. People always contact me and ask, 'Can I bring Avon?' 'Thirty-One?' I'm like, 'No, that's just not what we're about.'"

Local, personal and unique are what the market is about, Henry said.

"It's all about the backlash of the community to the big-box stores," she said. "Of course, it's not as big here in our consumers as it is out west or in New York City, but it's coming."

World travel led Henry to her Upstate locale. She was born in Vermont and lived in Massachusetts and Indiana before moving to Greenville to attend Bob Jones. After graduation she embarked on medical mission trips to Cameroon and Micronesia.

It was a shortened mission to Liberia that oddly put her in the Upstate for good. She was providing medical care with other mission workers in 1990 when a political coup in the African nation forced their evacuation.

She'd planned to be in Liberia for three years, but she returned to the States after nine months. Instead of returning to South Bend, Ind., where she lived before college, she returned to the Upstate.

She chose not to continue in nursing and instead looked elsewhere for work. She began to buy and sell on eBay. Then she began to focus on furniture. She and her husband refurbished scratched-and-dented pieces and ultimately operated the Bargain Shop in Greer, later renamed Savvy Home.

But she tired of the retail regiment. Her husband, a builder by trade, grew busier with his own work after the recession eased, and she wanted more time with their children, Lemuel, 16, Maria, 15, and Nashon, 13. They sold their store in Greer in June.

She hatched ideas for a DIY center — one she still plans to pursue once mill occupancy shakes out — and for a market. She held the first market at her old store in Greer.

She also sells refurbished furniture and a line of Amy Howard paint products at Palmetto Home and Garden as well as at her own market.

She takes joy in how far she and her market have come, while growing excited about where they could go.

"Through life experience I came to realize and embrace I had the spirit of entrepreneurship," Henry said. "I loved creating a business where people were able to get high-end furniture at discount prices, but I soon realized retail wasn't my heart. I need to move around more, experience more change, or maybe I should say more challenges."

She's found that through Savvy Restyle Market. The market typically opens the first Fridays and Saturdays of each month, coinciding with First Fridays open art studios at Taylors Mill, which has some occupants with direct access outdoors unaffected by the county's stop-work order.

The order does affect the market's would-be home, but though the mill's rebirth remains incomplete, the market has adjusted, just as so many of its items have been adapted, recycled and repurposed to enrich again.

Like the items in artist Schopf's "Buck in a China Shop." A discarded rake and a bicycle seat have new meaning in a vintage frame backed with vintage wallpaper. They once might have inspired pride resting by a cleared yard or rolling down a road.

Schopf, a Travelers Rest resident, said regular customers now seek her out at Henry's market. "It's been amazing to watch it grow from the beginning," she said.

"They don't shop me online or come to any other markets. They come to that market to see me every month, and they find other people as well."

"I love it," said vendor Chaney, who lives in Greer. "Heidi and her husband are wonderful to work with. They're very active and really want to see everybody do well. It's just a fun thing to be a part of it."

Henry said she is facing challenges in her endeavor with the counter challenge of "I will make this work." She shares the market's monthly plans on Facebook at Savvy Restyle Market.

"We will see what January holds," she said. "Hopefully we will be able to get back to the mill soon, but until then we are going to have fun checking out other areas while building our shopper base."

- Follow Michael Burns on Twitter @MikeNearGreer