Welcome

Ahoy Matey, and Welcome to REPTIRE, an intermittent ‘ship’s blog’, chronicling the slow rise in the South Easterly skies of Reptire Designs; a studio that designs and crafts always artful, and sometimes useful THINGAMABOBS from old Indian Cucachou, aka ReTired Rubber.

Down Below, Ye shall find a permanent 'flagship post' marking the Maiden Voyage of Reptire Designs.

And below that, in the ‘hull’, can be found more recent posts chronicling the daring new adventures of Reptire Designs, dashed with small bits of whimsy, spotted pickerel, local color, and lizard lore..

In fact, on the right, in pale purple, ye shall find the Captain's Log’s Table of Previous Posts, which ye can peruse by year, month, and title to ye hearts content.

If ye haven't gotchyer sea legs yet, My Pretty, Ye can take a gander at our website at www.reptiredesigns.com, to get a proper Landlubber's Introduction.

Thanks for stopping in, I do hope you enjoy your visit aboard this ship! HARHARHARHAR.......

Sincerely, Travius Von Cohnifus

Captain, Founder, Indentured Servant, Rubber Alligator Wrestlor Extraordinaire a' this here ship.

enter the treadknot

Welcome
On September 26th, 2006, I launched my tire art/design business, Reptire Designs, with a solo exhibition of my artwork in The Green Gallery at The Scrap Exchange Center for Creative Reuse, in Durham, NC. For many reasons, it was a night that I will always remember, and I am grateful to Laxmi (my girlfriend at the time) and Edie (my mother, still) for dutifully documenting while I shmoozed, so that I may now shmare a taste of the evening with anyone who was not able to attend...



On a cool but lively autumn night-before-Center Fest, a stream of friends and curious strangers trickled (like pebbles through a rain stick) through the forest of odds and ends (that roost at night in The Scrap Exchange), out into the warm light of the back savanna, a scene utterly glopped with bizarre rubbery hybrids. Tentative and curious, the visitors craned their necks, nibbled, pecked, stood back, moved in closer. From the walls, glassy mirror eyes gazed back through black unblinking eyelids, while beneath the visitor's feet, in a steamy drainage cistern, a mortal drama unfolded. Primordial forms, with no eyes at all, sat puckered on stoops. A cascade of glittering steal droplets formed a curtain, to which clung a colony of tiny tire knotlettes.

Vito D., a long-time collabator down from the Asheville area, caressed the warming air with his Strange Little Folk music. I bobbed and I flit, and at an increasing clip-someone must have opened the faucet a bit....for soon I was swooning, I just about lost it! As the evening progressed, to my delight and amazement, 'family' from Durham, Chapel Hill, Pittsboro, Hillsboro, Siler City, Asheville, and Fresno all made it! From the Cohn Clan to the Steudel Clan to the CFS Clan; from the WWC Clan to the Duke Ac Pub Clan to the SAF Clan; from the Bike Shop Clan to the Ninth St. Clan to the Scrap Clan... and every one in between, guys, they were all appearing before my stunned, blinking eyes. While I spun and I splayed, Vito now played-CHURNED- up a torrent of gritty ditties; while a staff volunteer (Brandon's a photographer, I swear) whipped up pitchers of Mango Lassies. And The 'Scrap Exchange girls' worked the door, the counter, and the floor, going "cha-CHING!", cha-CHING!","cha-CHING!".!.



By the end of the night, hundreds of friends, acquaintances and had-been-strangers had poured in, poured over the work, and partaken in, what was for me and my art, a monumental communal feast. And on top of it all, I got to place many of my preemies in hands that I love and trust, and in several instances, hands that fit them like gloves. What a privilage to be able to connect with people this way. Heading into the turbid seas of small business, I can confidently say that if I drown tomorrow, I am at least blessed today with the memory of (as Vito later put it) one authentically good Durham night.



Thanks to all of you who were there; in body and/or spirit.





Reclaimed-wood Builder and Reptire Collector Howard Staab enjoying magwi knot at the Scrap Exchange

Reclaimed-wood Builder and Reptire Collector Howard Staab enjoying magwi knot at the Scrap Exchange
I can't think of anything more rewarding for an artist than to see someone interacting with their artwork. Photo by Laxmi Haynes

Sammy and Dannette contemplate

Sammy and Dannette contemplate
Photograph by Laxmi Haynes

Cascade Colony of Knotlets

Cascade Colony of Knotlets
They would go with your jacket, would they not Claire?

Laxmi Resplendent

Laxmi Resplendent

Mavis In The Mist

Mavis In The Mist
Photograph by Laxmi Haynes

Tire Amazement

Tire Amazement
Photograph by Edie Cohn

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Returning to the treadknot (as I tend to do)

Well,
  I have turned my attention for the past week or so back towards my booth.
MaryEllen, the Director of the Reuse Alliance, recently sent us the layout of the exhibit hall, and it looks like aside from my fellow Reclaimed Artists, I am going to be in excellent company with the other exhibitors too.
In fact right next to me is going to be none other than Eco Art Ware, a web-based gallery of art and crafts made from Reclaimed Materials. You can check them out at
http://www.eco-artware.com/index.php

I also see that, to my renewed delight, Atom Cianfariani, Reue Artist/Fashion Designer All Star WILL BE SPEAKING AT THE EVENT! Holy shit. I feel like a school girl about to wet her pants, and I mean that...
Want a taste? Check it!:::
http://atomsdream.weebly.com/rubber-textiles.html
If you take a gander, you will see that Atom does a whole more than this two. I am interested to hear her speak.

So, this has been a pleasurable turn for me, inwards towards my homies, my locus, the treadknot.
I made a hearty batch of the little guys, the change purses over the course of the last two days, and it was such a pleasure to work that form again.
   I also found that I seem to have honed my skills, and the design seems to be refining itself, as it should...
I think that I may decide to up the price on them just a little, here at the festival, but also in general.
Why?
Well, I have always felt that the treadknot is a sort of sacred form, and at times I have wondered if it is a tad bit sacriligious to enslave them with task of handling 'filthy lucre'. I think I've gotten over that, for the time being, I mean, if we Jewish "God's Chosen" are the financiers of the world, maybe a treadknot will make a great change purse, who am I to say? (and it does).
  However, that issue aside,  I do feel that, with the increased attention to detail that I give each one, that they are becoming works of art in themselves.
So I think I might up them from $16.50 to $18, and some more intensive ones even on up to $20 or $25, which is the price a seasoned craftsman once suggested to me.

So I am putting most of my focus right now on merchandizing these slick little buggers. 6 years down, and I still think these things are the hottest thing since...hottentots...
I FINALLY wrote up a sheet to go with them today, including a 'how to care for' sheet. It was fun doing it. It makes it alot easier to send these guys out into the world, when I take the oppurtunity to explain what makes them so special, and how to keep them that way.

And Thanks to my wonderful friend Stacye Leanza, I now have a gawgeus hangtag to dangle from their chains. Stacye was kind enough to respond to my plea for help (in return for a lot of free help on murals in the past two years, I think) and update my logo design a little bit, for this new application. She was super to work with, and I am REALLY pleased with the result. As she would say She should be a Graphic Designa! Heres a peak:

(sorry, won't let me load it) Basically, she added my website at the bottom, and configured the tag line (with my direction), to make it much more readable. She must have done SOMETHING for the resolution too, cause it looks Much better than I ever remember seeing it. Damn that looks good Stacye!

In other news, I have secured another van, God Bless Diane! Diane Swan, a good fairy sister of Chatham County, who we are all blessed to have in our midst. She uses the van to instal the gorgeous cabinets that she installs in the special and lucky homes hidden around this county. If you are interested, please check out what beautiful touches of trees she brings to a home's cabinetry: http://www.facebook.com/diane.swan.galleries

Diane warns me that the van has no working windows, no AC, no radio. Pshaw.
My options? Suffice to say, None of them a running van!
The Diesel Van, well, its a long story. Not this time, sorry buddy.

OK, better hit the hay. Feel a headache on the way, and I'll be needing that noggin for the next day.
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