Artists' colony

Holli Watts, age 31

Artists often were creative children or have creative parents, and both are true of Holli Watts, the creative co-owner of accent furniture manufacturer, Sylvan Lake. However, few creative types majored in mathematics in college with the thought of becoming a math teacher. After a stint of student teaching, Holli realized it wasn't for her, so when she graduated college and got married, she was looking for a career that would allow her to work from home, since she planned to one day have a family.

Holli's mother, Barbie White, worked for Habersham at the time, and the company's founder, Joyce Eddy, let Holli sell her hand-painted benches and barstools in the Habersham showroom one market. And that, as they say, is how it all began.

"I came home with orders and produced them all in my home," Holli said. "Then I realized I had to ship them and I didn't have a clue how to do that."

She figured it out and a year later, in 1996, Holli and her aunt, Margaret Harrison, formed Sylvan Lake. For the first two years Holli did all the designs and painting herself and an assistant helped with the business and shipping. Margaret built the furniture and handled the shows. When Holli's son Justin was born in 1998, she realized she needed help keeping up with the growing production demands so she could spend time with him.

Fortunately Sylvan Lake is located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Clayton, Ga., and has become a Mecca for artists. Holli enlisted the help of a friend, who also is an artist and wanted to work at home to be with her child, and from there the stay-at-home-artist colony was born.

Today they employ about six full-time artists, all of whom work from their homes, including Holli's sister April, who joined the company when her child was born.

"It's worked out great for all of us," Holli said. "Family is the most important thing to me, and having this business has not only allowed me to stay at home and spend time with Justin, but for other artists to do the same. Everyone lives within 45 minutes of us. We live in a unique community. People here are independent-minded and it seems like creative people migrate to the area."

The company has grown since its beginnings nearly a decade ago, and though Holli still designs the pieces, she also manages the artists, oversees production and attends shows. Margaret handles sales and marketing and attends shows as well.

The inspiration for her business came from wanting to spend time with her family and the inspiration for her hand-painted designs come from everywhere, Holli said. She scans magazines, pays attention to colors in the marketplace and listens to what her customers ask for. All of that has produced about 150 designs currently in the line.

The design process starts with Holli sketching and painting a pattern. Though she prefers to complete the prototypes herself, sometimes she passes them along to one of the other artists. Once the artist gets the pattern and color scheme, she gets to work.

"Depending on the detail of the painting and size of the piece itself it could take an artist a day to complete one piece the first time through," Holli said. "After they've painted it once, they might finish a kitchen stool in about two hours."

Holli said pricing on the pieces isn't always about the size, but about the detail involved in the painting. Each piece of Sylvan Lake furniture is hand-painted, so it really is a work of art.

Holli said her mathematical background plays into her design work as well.

"Design work is like a mathematical equation," she said. "It's very geometrical and I approach it that way. It's interesting to work with my sister and mother on designs or ask their opinions because they don't have that mathematical background. We all have a different perspective."

Sylvan Lake's pieces range from stools, benches and shelves to wall decor, armoires, trumeaus, tables and more and are available in garden and floral motifs, French Country, lodge, coastal and more. Holli and Margaret sell to designers, as well as catalogs and furniture stores. They also do custom work, which Holli enjoys.

"I love painting the first design of anything," she said. "After that I'm ready to move on to the next new thing."

Though she never brings anything to market she doesn't like (Sylvan Lake shows in High Point and Atlanta), Holli's current favorite is a design she and her sister April did for their mother for Christmas, shown above. "It was weird giving her the piece because she knows exactly how it's done, she knows the process and everything," Holli said. "It meant a lot to us that she liked it so well."

"The business is doing well and my challenge is finding enough time to work on all the ideas I have as well as spend time with my family, which was the whole reason I started the company," she said.

Justin, now 7, often works with Holli and sometimes helps set up shows. He's following in his mother's footsteps and has an eye for design and color, Holli said.

"He wants to design something, cars, playground equipment, anything," she said. "And he has some good ideas. He paints with me sometimes, and he recently sold his first piece, a rooster, for $25."