Joseph Kasko
palmettoreport@gmail.com

* Editor’s note: May was small business month in York County and this story is part of a series of reports on local businesses in the community.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) — Chris Hord used to own a successful dental lab that provided cosmetic services to corporate dental groups, but something just didn’t feel right about that type of work.

“It was very successful for a number of years, but the trade just changed,” Hord said. “The industry changed. Corporate dentistry is real, it was a monster that I couldn’t deal with anymore.”

The Rock Hill native and artist, who enjoys drawing and painting, said he always dreamed of having a place where creative people could come together.

“Ever since COVID I’ve been reinventing myself through my art and meeting artists alike and going to markets,” Hord said. “That counterculture of folk, I guess you would call it, the creators and such. I don’t know, I fell in love with the communal aspect of it and for years I’ve just had this idea of this, of getting everybody on the same property.”

So, in April he and his wife Julie opened the Collective, located just a stones throw from the Winthrop University campus at 1045 Oakland Ave.

The Collective is operated in a house that has been converted to serve as a community space for local artisans to display and sell their creations.

“It’s a communal place that’s not a bar or a church,” he said. “When people come here and I meet them it’s just like an old friend.”

Hord has also had help from close friend and fellow artist Brad Miller, who graduated from Winthrop in 2001.

“Chris and I grew up together here in Rock Hill and we’ve been best friends since second grade and we both kind of had a passion to bring artists together in a place,” said Miller.

“(Chris) found this place and he’s poured his heart and soul into this place for the past 10 months now,” said Miller, who has his ceramics and bonsai trees on display for sale in the store.

“I call myself a free-lance horticulturist. I do specialty stuff, seasonal things, but my passion really is bonsai and the ceramics aspect of that,” he said, “to create a piece of living art. It kind of fascinates me.”

Miller, who now lives in Edgemoor, said he fell in love with the arts after taking a ceramics class while he was a student at Winthrop.

“You have to make a tea bowl and a pitcher and I was like ‘I’m going to make a bonsai pot.’ So, that was kind of the impetus for me following into horticulture…so I started to try to grow trees and put them in these little pots and it kind of fostered my interest in horticulture,” he said.

You can find a number of different types of items for sale at the collective, which are made by local artisans, including crochet, textiles, jewelry, woodwork items, paintings, candles and soaps. There are also a variety of food items, such as tea, cake mixes, pretzels, bagels, bread, jam, fresh produce and ginger ale.

“It’s just so hard for part-time artisans to find an outlet for what they’re creating and that’s really what we wanted to do is find space for those people to come in at a low cost. They don’t have to pay anything to be here, other than a percentage of sales. So, if it doesn’t sell, they’re not out anything. Some of these farmer’s markets or festivals, you have to spend hundreds of dollars just to get there for the weekend,” Miller said. “I think it gives people a lot of opportunity to get their stuff out there.”

Hord and Miller estimated they have the work of roughly 30-40 creators on display and for sale at the Collective.

“I think it’s going really good. The thing is there’s no expectation that’s been put on it. We don’t know, week to week, we don’t know what it’s going to be in the end. This retail portion has always been a part of it, but we want to build on that through all the networking that happens through that. It’s been very organic,” Hord said. “It’s always a friend of a friend. I have some really serious endorsers of this that really love it and love the idea and they’re eager to tell people about it.”

Miller said, since the Collective opened, the response from the community has been positive.

“People come in and spend time, even if they don’t buy anything, it’s just like they come in and take the time to look at what other people spent so much time making,” Miller said.

“I think that’s been the big thing is that the people that come in here from word of mouth, that is the most special part. That somebody came in here and felt the creative aspect and saw the uniqueness of what we were trying to offer and passed it along and told other people about it.”

Hord said, so far, ceramics made by Eunice Calderon, have been one of the best selling items in the store. “She just knows what she’s doing,” he said.

“I’m definitely paying attention to what sells. I’ve always known the provisions, the things that I buy wholesale, would do pretty well. People just come back and get them. I bought five loaves of sourdough (bread) and sold three tonight. That’s just a product to keep people coming back and then one day they’re like ‘I remember that picture, that painting, so-and-so’s birthday is coming up or there’s such-and-such event.’ That’s kind of the essence of it. I don’t want it to be a property where you come and say ‘I’ve seen it, I’ve done it.'”

On a Friday night last week, the Hords celebrated their 11th wedding anniversary by welcoming in the public for an evening of music, food and art.

“It’s a fun place to be,” said Julie Hord. She said her husband was in “his element,” as he played host for the night.

The event featured the Rock Hill based music group Sol Session performing on the front porch and food was available from Fort Mill based Backstage BBQ.

“It has always been Chris’s vision to have musicians on the porch. That has been the big goal of his the whole time,” Miller said. “He wanted music out there to draw people in and I think that worked tonight. It was a good draw and we had a really good turnout.”

Verla Decker, of Rock Hill, said she initially came out to the Collective to see her son Raymond Franklin perform with Sol Session.

“Plus I love little shops like that, so I wanted to check it out,” Decker said. “I think it’s pretty cool and I’m retiring soon and I might talk to them about putting some of my paintings in there.”

Dale Holbrook, from Van Wyck, said he and his wife like to go out and listen to live music a few times a month.

“She suggested that we come out to enjoy the evening with our friends…it’s very chill and the barbecue is awesome,” he said.

“I was told ‘I was coming out or she was going by herself,'” Holbrook quipped.

“I think it’s awesome. I got some sourdough bread. I loved the art. I got some barbecue, which was delicious…but I love little places like this and I’ll definitely be back for sure,” Decker said.

Chris Hord said it was special to see his vision for the “porch session” come to life.

“This evening was really cool. To open that door and walkout and see all those folks and most of them are people that care for me,” he said. “This is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Hord says he plans to host future music sessions, as the Collective has put out a call for musicians on social media.

“I just want to not feel stress,” he said. “As far as a purposeful life, I may have found that. I found a path towards some peace.”

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