The Ancient Craft on Live In The D

As part of Black History Month today, we are featuring a local artisan who takes the influence from North Africa and puts it into wearable arts. His company is called The Ancient Craft and each piece he creates is made unique for his customers. And joining us to tell us more about his work is the one, the only Virgil Taylor, owner of The Ancient Craft. Hey, Virgil. Good morning. Glad to have you with us. Tell us all about The Ancient Craft, including that name. Well, you know, people ask me about the name. I honestly can't tell you exactly where it came from. I came up with this several years ago and my influence has always just been things that come from like North Africa, the Middle East. And this has been something that's been with me since I was a kid. So I came up with that name several years ago, but I can't honestly tell you exactly where it came from. I use a lot of like ancient techniques, but with jewelry making or wearable art making, techniques are kind of consistent. So it's always forming and casting and soldering and things of that nature. They've been around for thousands of years. Well, we are looking at a series of full screens of your beautiful jewelry, wearable art. Show us some of the other items that you have. Well, I did have some stuff with me or here in my studio that I can share. This is, I don't know, can you see? Yep, hold it up just like that. Okay, that is, this is my signature ring. This is from my signature series. And that's a hand cast piece that has my logo showing on it. This is another piece again, that shows my logo as well. And this is a pendant more or less. I have, like I said, I have quite a bit of stuff here. Again, this is a pendant that shows my logo again. Hold that up a little higher above the banner there. There we go, that's good. Okay, how did you come up with that logo? Actually, I was working with some kids at Youthville Detroit, and one of my students was an artist and she and I came up with the logo. It's based on kind of my take on ancient alchemaic symbols for the medals. And a young lady named Amber helped me to design it. And then I just incorporated it into so much of my work. Listen to you dropping the words alchemaic, like alchemy, lotions, and potions, and you got a cauldron going there. We know you create individual works of art, but you also have something called your signature series. What is that? Now, the pieces I just showed you were from my signature series. Anything with my signature series includes my logo. And that, the earrings right there are from my signature series. So anything from my signature series does include my logo. Those are the only pieces that I use molds for. Typically, when I create for people, I create individual pieces that I will not create again, but my signature series is stuff that I do have molds for and I cast. But these are a couple pieces, for instance, that are pieces that are not from my signature series. These are just pieces that I crafted. So when you meet somebody for the first time, do you say, hi, nice to meet you? I'm Virgil Taylor, ancient alchemist. Yeah, I like that. I think I'll use that in the future. You are welcome, sir. My pleasure. Where can people get in touch with you if they are interested in having you create a piece for them? They can reach me through my website, www.theancientcraft.com. And so that's usually the best way for people to reach me. I have a phone number on there. They can email me through there, but that's typically the best way. I do put works of art on there periodically. I do need to update it, to be quite honest. But I typically have things on there. So a lot of people have reached me through there from some other shows that I've been involved in and some other things. So I do strictly word of mouth. I don't do any advertising. Okay, Virgil, it's been a real pleasure having you. I should let you know that my cohost, Tati, has gotten out her checkbook and she's ready for some of those earrings. One of a kind. I am so ready for her. And I'm sure I would be so happy to design something specifically for her. Don't forget, I can do stuff for you too. Oh yeah, that one ring you were showing off was pretty money. All right, Virgil, good to see you. All right, thanks so much for having me.