The year of the maker in Baton Rouge

Everything about designer and musician Molly Taylor’s home and workspace, from the materials she uses to the building itself, has been salvaged or reclaimed.

She and her boyfriend—Andrew Moran, the craftsman behind reclaimed wood furniture company Mid City Handmade—live in a cinderblock warehouse off Government Street. When Moran bought it, the building was caked with a foot of mud, but he’s since transformed the floor space into a sprawling workshop and built an apartment upstairs.

The space is a welcoming combination of hodgepodgery and flowing design, and Taylor herself is as warm and unassuming as she leads the tour, skipping a handshake greeting for a tight hug. A small office showcases her many creative projects—a sewing machine, a laptop covered with stickers, a guitar. Here, she keeps her finished products from the woodshop below: the wooden necklaces and earrings she’s handmade for her rising jewelry brand, Beneath the Bark.

Like her music, Taylor’s design style is often improvisational. Her geometric shapes veer toward tribal and Native American influences—part of her heritage—but most of all, they are original Molly Taylor freestyle creations.

“I don’t like to do things all the same,” she says. “It sort of comes to me as I go. I choose an interesting piece of wood, and I let it tell me what it wants to be.”

Taylor’s Beneath the Bark brand has taken off since its beginning in late 2014 via a Christmas gift idea that quickly grew into a business venture. She carefully selects the material for each piece from Moran’s scrap wood, all of which has been salvaged locally. One necklace is made with Lake Maurepas driftwood, while others come from fallen trees gathered around Baton Rouge. All of the pieces are made by hand in the woodshop, some even with a massive antique lathe that belonged to Moran’s grandfather.

Taylor’s indie, upcycling lifestyle represents maybe the biggest cultural trend the Capital Region has seen recently. It’s a maker culture, built around local goods, small businesses and word-of-mouth advertising. Flourishing neighborhoods like Ogden Park and Capital Heights have supported the trend with art hops and festivals, which Taylor and other makers frequent to get their products into local hands.

Now, with Baton Rouge-founded brands like ETCH studio and Mimosa by M.E. landing national attention, it seems 2016 could be the year that maker culture takes over.

“Everyone is so welcoming,” Taylor says of the local maker community. “Everyone will support you and help you get started. It’s all trial and error. And even people who haven’t really grasped it yet, they’re taking an interest. It’s really inspiring to see in Baton Rouge. Being creative has become very cultural.”

To aspiring makers in the city, Taylor has this to say: Follow what you love doing, and the community will help you along. beneaththebarkjewelry.com