Artistry in Silk's Kris Nolan to retire

Susan Dickenson -- Home Accents Today, 4/19/2012 9:49:37 AM

ATLANTA, Ga. - Kris Nolan, president and founder of Artistry in Silk, this week announced her retirement along with plans to close the company, a custom manufacturer of high-end faux botanicals, wall planters, trees and floor plants.

In a statement to clients, Nolan said, "We will be filling orders until our inventory is depleted and our original pre-made stock is sold, but we will not be showing at the April 2012 High Point Market."

Nolan started the company in the 1980's as a stay-at-home mom. "I had a friend with a fabulous house with gorgeous arrangements all over the place," she told Home Accents Today in 2008. "I knew I couldn't afford them so I went to a floral shop and bought all the pieces and just started making them." She eventually landed several national furniture store accounts, moved the operation into a commercial facility, and saw the business take off when one of her creations landed in The Horchow Collection. In 2004 Artistry in Silk broadened its base by showing at AmericasMart, in the Furniture Classics showroom.

"We sincerely appreciate the many loyal customers who enabled the further expansion in 2007 to a permanent showroom in Showplace at the International Furniture Market in High Point," Nolan's statement read. "It was in that location that we blossomed and we thank you for taking us from humble beginnings to the successful growing business that it is today, having our most successful High Point markets in 2011, and shipping our first container to Kuwait last summer. And if that wasn't enough, our customers delighted us by a nomination for the ARTS Awards two years in a row.

Nolan said she's looking forward to the "third chapter" of her life. "I'm looking forward to being a housewife once again, enjoying my husband who has been very supportive over these busy years, spending more time as ‘Nan' to my grandsons, traveling, and playing golf. For me it is time to smell the real roses."