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

Saturday, July 14, 2012

ENO 2012 Wednesday, July 4th


One of the pleasures of setting up a booth at the Festival for the Eno, is watching the parks native inhabitants checking out these strange new arrivals. From exotic furry catipilars to robin's to, to this japanese beetle who found himself stuck  in this tredknot vase.


HOT ONE
I’m not gonna lie, this was kind of a tough year at the festival. We had temperatures reaching up into the 108’s all week leading up to the festival, and right on through it too. I think we all took a little bit of a beating this year (in comparison to the last two years, which were quite mild).

This heat made my already ambitious preparations a bit more arduous this year.
This year, as I do every year, I wanted to outdo myself, to up my game, and moreover, continue to refine my presentation of Reptire Designs. But in gathering the many details of this production  together (not to mention the many details of production of artwork for the festival itself), it quickly became clear to me that before I could outdo myself, well jeez, I first had to catch up with myself!...

All in all, I think I was able to improve upon my presentation last year, most notably in terms of signage, and product selection. And looking at photos from year to year, it is most satisfying to watch this thing grow into itself, to see Reptire Designs come into sharper and sharper focus.











 However, I wasn't able to undertake a few new projects that I had hoped to mount this year. Oh well, I guess there is always next year.

GOOD NEIGHBORS
Fortunately, I was blessed once again with some really great neighbors, Galia Graphics on my right, and Oliver's Collar on my left. Across the way was Max, with his beautiful leatherwork, and his sweet friend Jackie, standing in for his wife Cathy, who was busy being a new Grandma!

Galia, an Eno Veteran of almost 30 years (!) shared a lot of good perspective with me, and the dog treats, far from being smelly in the heat, were delicious! (I just wish these nice folks had had some milk to go with these cookies!)

Another great change down in our little cove by the river was  the moving of the River Stage. 
The organizers had chosen to do this because its previous location had lacked key shade, creating a sort of "Ring Of Fire" infront of the stage (Vito).
The new location worked perfectly as far as I could tell. The stage seemed bigger, and it framed a backdrop of the shady mill.
As a result, this stage seemed to bring some of the more notable acts down to the river, where it is a little bit cooler.

NEW COLLECTORS ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 4th
As usual, I had some great visitors at the Reptire Designs Hut this year.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera on Wednesday, and so don’t have a good photo record to go by.

I do remember my first customer though, Darlene, who purchased one of the Bells of the ball. A striking tredknot tirarim planted with a lily of the valley.
Darlene also sent over her friend, Rachel, who I really enjoyed, and emailed me with some really great encouragment and perhaps some legal advice.

I also meet Leslie and Ken, a very nice couple who decided to commission a tredknot tirarium to set on the edge of their small, hardscaped pond. For this I recommended a motorcycle knot, as they reported that the site had direct sunlight. They chose a really lovely specemine from the gemline series (with an inlay of chatham soil into the tread, which invokes something of a network of roots working their way into soil.
This I took home with me, and prepared for them to plant them selves, filling it with a liner, gravel and soil. It is finished with a plug of mulch which they only need to remove to plant their lucky plant. This was the first specemine of this kind, and I was extremely pleased with the way it came out. I will have to learn from Leslie and Ken how their planting went.



A GAP IN THE SCHEDULE
One other odd thing about this year, was that the festivals dates were divided between the customary 4th, which fell on a Wednesday this year, and the weekend after, on the 7th and 8th.
This strange occurance meant that, at our own discretion, we had to either leave our stuff in a wide open public state park, or pack it back up for this pause of a couple days, and then return to set it back out.

I had actually hoped that these days would be a boon, as this would give me the reality check of Wednesday, and then a few days to adjust accordingly.

And to some extent it did. However, under the oppressive heat of the days, the fatigue of the weeks of preperation, and the intertia and distractions of being away from the studio, I quickly found my focus dissipating, and my efforts loosing some momentum…

I knew I had to make a break, so, after a lost day, that I don’t really even remember,  I staggered out and over to visit my friends at the Scrap Exchange, hoping for some stuffing for my dragon’s eye’s, and maybe a little inspiration….

To be continued...(in the next post)
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