Aaron: Hello and welcome to another podcast from Explore The Smokies. Are you planning a trip to the Smoky Mountains? Are you too busy to spend hours planning and searching sites for the best activities? Find all your answers at exploresmokies.com. Let us take the guesswork out of planning with customized itineraries at community forum where you can ask questions, vacation rentals and a podcast and so much more at exploresmokies.com.
April: The Smoky Mountains attract more than tourists and adventure seekers. There’s a rich history of artists and crafters that seek out inspiration from the enchantment that seemingly billows down from the mountains themselves. And one of those artists is Kimberly Bylo and she is joining us today from her storefront in the artist loop in Gatlinburg. Thanks for joining us, Kimberly.
Kimberly Bylo: Thanks so much for having me.
Aaron: Hey, Kimberly, you actually grew up in Ohio and Michigan, I hear, but there was something about the Smokies when you were little that stay with you. What was it?
Kimberly: Well, when I was a kid, we used to family vacation down here. A lot of people that have been visiting the Smokies for a lot of their lives. They have a lot of memories that have been made here. I grew up hiking in the mountains and immediately from the first time I went into them, I fell in love with them. It really has been the mountains that, I guess, have always called.
April: Something that you said that was really interesting to me in our pre-interview work is that you didn’t know that you were an artist until after you moved to New York City, later after you’ve grown up.
Kimberly: I did not. I grew up in a really small-town in Ohio. I played sports, like a lot of people in small towns do. I was a state long jumper back in the day, and was always crafty.
April: Nice.
Kimberly: I grew up in the country and we had a big pole barn. I’d go on the pole barn and repaint furniture and used to spend endless nights just making little beaded hemp bracelets in my bedroom and I would make clothes for myself. So, I was always crafty on top of doing all my sports, but and didn’t know anyone that was an artist and didn’t even really realize that was a thing that people really did for a living. Yes, I really didn’t know. I thought at the time, I wanted to be a social worker. By the test that you’re given, that was the direction that kind of led me in. I originally had went to school to get into studying social working.
April: From a small-town country girl, you ended up though in New York City.
Kimberly: I did. I made it. If I figured if I was going to make a change, I might as well make a big change.
April: There you go. You succeeded.
Kimberly: I had some friends that moved there and I had visited them before I actually had applied to some schools and they were like, “Oh you should come in with us” and I did.
April: And that’s where you really started honing your craft.
Kimberly: It is, yes, I got really serious about studying art as soon as I realize that’s what I wanted to do, and majored in painting and mostly did a lot of big abstract paintings.
Aaron: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. I understand that the Smoky Mountains have one of the largest arts and crafts communities. When did you decide “Okay, I’m going to go down to the Smokies. I’m going to start my own shop.” When did that happen?
Kimberly: That was about 11 years ago. I opened in 2010 at the end of the recession, or when we were coming out. People were probably like, “Wow! This girl is coming up and opening a shop here right now, that’s crazy.” Even as an adult, I continue to vacation on the mountains. My folks had a cabin here that they were renting for a period of time and then they were not, and I actually moved here by way of renting their cabin from them.
I had been visiting the arts and crafts community for many years and just had it, I guess, started to have it in the back of my head that maybe I could focus all the energy that I was doing, giving to all these other things that I was doing in New York. If I put that towards my work and my art that hopefully, I could do at least as well as I was doing there. I, very naively, just decided to take the leap and open up my shop at that point. I really didn’t know a lot about running a business. I thought I knew a lot about making art at that point, and I really just dove in.
Aaron: That’s awesome. That’s a great story.
Kimberly: Yes.
Aaron: And you have to dive all in, right? You can’t just go halfway.
Kimberly: Yes. I think if I would have planned more, I might not have, you know, you can plan and do all the planning in the world, but then when you get into it, really, things are usually different than what you plan for. In ways, I’m glad I didn’t plan as much as maybe I should have.
Aaron: That’s great.
April: That’s your true artists’ soul. [Crosstalk] I think that’s the case.
Aaron: Tell me about what’s a glass working? Can you expound on that a little bit about what that is and how it works?
Kimberly: Yes. I fuse glass, which is a warm glass technique as opposed to something like glass blowing. That’s a hot glass technique for your adding direct heat to glass by way of a flame. I heat my glass using a kiln. It’s more of an indirect heat.
Basically, what I do is I take colorful sheets of glass and I cut it into different shapes and then I stack the glass and I put it in a kiln, and I melt it all together into a solid seamless multicolored piece of glass. It has a lot of depth. I use a lot of glass called dichroic glass. It might be a little bit too much information, but I get a little nerdy about it. Sorry
April: It’s okay. That’s passion. You can talk about it. Go for it.
Kimberly: It is a glass; it’s stuff that was originally designed by NASA. It’s a coating on the glass of metal oxides, and those metal oxides will pick up the light and often give you different color reflections when the light hits the glass at different angles. It’s a really beautiful shimmery material, very colorful, and that is primarily the type of glass that I use in my work. I primarily make jewelry. I would say I specialize in making dichroic glass jewelry, and it’s all fused glass. But I use a glass called dichroic glass.
Aaron: Who got you into that?
Kimberly: My mom did. I’ve totally fell into it after getting a BFA at Hunter in New York. I learned how to fuse glass from her, and that’s what I do for a living now.
April: That’s amazing. That’s an amazing story. And now, you’re part…
Kimberly: Yeah. She gave me sort of a crash course in infusing glass. Yes.
April: And now you’re part of the largest arts and crafts community in the country. Tell us a little bit about the history of the Great Smoky Arts and Crafts Community.
Kimberly: Originally in Gatlinburg, which way back when was a lot smaller than it is now, talking like 75 years ago, it’s grown a lot since then. But a lot of the artisans that originally started this craft community were Downtown, Gatlinburg. They would sit outside of shops Downtown, and do their craft on the street and people would walk by and watch them, and they’d sell to people that were walking by and watching them do their craft. I think over the years, I think it was a combination of things. Gatlinburg was changing, storefronts were maybe taking a little bit too much commission from the artist, more than they wanted.
The artists started moving out to what is now the Great Smoky Arts & Crafts Community. They moved, first started their shops. The ones that were first people that started out here really sold from their homes and would invite people to come. Tourist that were coming here, they would invite them to come to their home workshops and look at the stuff they were creating there and then sell it to them. And then, that grew, more artists started coming out here. We have a lot of different complexes that are in the craft community now. It’s actually an entire eight mile loop at this point with 96 active members in the community.
April: Wow.
Kimberly: So, it has really grown a lot but it really started with those first handful of people that did things like wood whittling and chain, or yet chair caning and weaving, really old traditional crafts like broom making. Those are some of the first people that started this community.
Female Host: That’s amazing. People who are listening to this, they may be interested in coming down to the Smoky Mountain area, just to come to the Arts and Crafts Loop. What are some of the places that you would suggest perhaps staying in order to have good access to all of the artists.
Kimberly: I hope that’s true. Hope you feel really do come just for us.
Female Host: Absolutely.
Kimberly: That’s awesome. There are actually a lot of rental cabins out in the craft community now. Aside from that, there are some bed and breakfasts that are out here, that Hippensteal’s Mountain View Inn that is located in the Arts and Crafts Community, along with the Buckhorn Inn, which is really popular. I would say check into cabin rentals out in the Arts and Crafts Community, or either of those bed and breakfasts.
Female Host: And, in terms of events, I know you do have some events that take place that bring a lot of tourists down.
Kimberly: I think it’s about really four main events that we do. We have three craft shows and the craft shows happen at the Convention Center downtown in the main part of Gatlinburg. We do an Easter show, a Thanksgiving show and then we do a Christmas show. The Thanksgiving and Christmas show sort of run into each other, towards the end of November.
And then the other thing that’s cool right now is in its third year, it’s going to be on this year, it’s called Hands-On Gatlinburg. And this is an opportunity for people that come to our community that are interested in trying a new craft or learning how to do something. The shop owners that want to offer classes, offer classes in there.
April: Wow! That is… I love that!
Kimberly: Yes, and that is at the very beginning of May.
April: Okay. That’s fantastic. I may even look into that and your website is lovelifelivelife.net. Right?
Kimberly: Yes.
April: I love the name. It’s wonderful. What inspires your work? Because before we called you today, we’re looking around on your website and we were going over some of your pieces and they’re just bold and energetic and beautiful. We were asking each other “What do you think inspired that creation? What is it that you hone in on?”
Kimberly: Yes, because I do a pretty diverse amount of work, I would say, and I’m definitely inspired by color. I think that’s a lot of times my main jump-off point. I love hiking in the mountains, especially during the time of… I’m seeing the wildflowers. I sometimes, quite often in the spring, incorporate different flower imagery into my work. And if I can, I do call to the mountains in different abstract ways. I do pieces that I consider my mountain designs and I do Tree of Life pendants. They’re all abstract glasses, a fairly abstract material. But I would say nature and then just kind of keeping it fun. I always say I don’t want anyone to have to think about like mortgaging their home for a piece of my jewelry or remortgaging it. I just wanted to keep it light and fun and bring joy to people with it.
April: That is exactly what you do. We were commenting on it beforehand. So many beautiful pieces. Aaron, every time we do a podcast has a Smoky Mountain 5, a quick Family Feud style questions about your experiences specifically in the Smoky. I’m going to turn it over to him and he’s going to give you the lowdown.
Aaron: All right. Kimberly, are you ready?
Kimberly: I am. Yes.
Aaron: Okay. Here we go. I’m starting the clock now. So, first thing that comes to your mind. Favorite place in the Smokies.
Kimberly: Favorites place in the Smokies, probably hiking Porters Creek Trail when the wild flowers are blooming.
Aaron: That’s great. And your favorite place to eat? One place.
Kimberly: Favorite place to eat. The Local Goat.
April: Nice.
Aaron: You like color, so what’s your favorite most colorful photos opportunity? Where would you go to get the most color and get the best shot?
Kimberly: I would say I like shooting wildflowers and so, the Porters Creek Trail, again, is a great place to and that’s for… I have some really more detailed photo but a lot of color and a lot of beautiful color.
Aaron: Awesome. Awesome. And if I had 24 hours to be there, what do I have to do? What’s the one thing I have to do in that 24 hours, maybe one or two things?
Kimberly: I’m going to need to because I going to have to mention the craft community again, but absolutely get out into the mountains and take a hike. Some of the only ways you can see that stuff is by walking and doing the work. Go see a waterfall in the mountains. Take a waterfall hike to maybe Grotto Falls. It’s a really beautiful one. And then, of course, see the Arts and Crafts Community. Come and see the Great Smoky Arts & Crafts Community.
Aaron: That’s great.
April: That’s awesome.
Aaron: Finally, what’s your most popular piece that you sell?
Kimberly: My most popular piece is probably my pendants that have the mountain designs in them.
April: Nice.
Kimberly: And then my Tree of Life pendants are very popular too.
April: Do you sell online as well?
Kimberly: I do. Yes.
April: Okay. So, tell us about your website again.
Kimberly: It is www.lovelifelivelife.net. You can see the gallery, but you can… it’s a shop now. And if you wanted to do any shopping now, you can click that button and you can see what I have available online.
April: And we will make sure to add your information to exploresmokies.com, too, so people can check it out there as well. Thank you so much, Kimberly, for giving us your time today. A lot of great information. I look forward to coming to shop.
Kimberly: Awesome. Thank you so much.
Aaron: Thank you.
Kimberly: I appreciate it.
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