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

Monday, June 10, 2013

Forbidden Fruit Dress Saga- Episode 4


BREAKING POINT
And finally, as the fatal fork in the road, the breaking point of no return quickly approached things did fall into place, as they often will, with a force of pressure applied.

Going in for a mandatory refresher training for Outreach Events at The Scrap Exchange, as a last ditch effort, afterwards I approached my supervisor about modeling the dress.
She was actually at the top of my list, followed by a series of voluptuous, statuesque dark haired beauties who I have the privilage to occaissionally work with at Scrap Exchange. Perhaps most volouptuous and statuesque of all being Queen Bee herself!
Sup pointed me straight in the direction of number 2 on my list, none other than my good friend of some time, Nicole Hogan.


THE WAY YIELDED A BOUNTY- Nicole and The Scrap Exhange Design Center
Nicole was (and is), a natural fit. A tough punk rock attitude, tempered gratefully by a sweet disposition. Much more relavently, Nicole has a solid background in the world of both fashion, and Scrap (and yes, Scrap Fashion), which was to prove indispensable in the course of the project.

As the Store Manager for The Scrap Exchange for many years, beyond her years, Nicole had seen us all through the perfect storm of the Tsunami that came crashing through roof of Liberty Warehouse 2 years ago, forcing the The Scrap Exchange (with all of its many barrels and shelves of things), fleeing in a hurried exodus, that almost proved fatal to this good organization of 26 years. (see post- LINK!) 

While The Scrap Exchange HAS managed to resettle itself in a new space, to much good advantage of reorganization of said stuff, as Store Manager, this epic operation has consumed every drop of Nicole’s time and energy. And so she confided (as I hope that she willl not mind me confiding with you, the wide world), that she was ready to dig back into her own realm of fashion, and perhaps this could be a first stab of the scissors, to find purchase, and peel back the creative parts of herself that have been starving for the light of day.  (I extrapolating a little here, but I think that is accurate..).

Additionally, Additionally MIRACULOUSLY, Nicole pointed out to me that The Scrap Exchange itself is privileged to own its own dress form, a dress form it so happens that are almost exactly Nicole’s own good dimensions (donated by a seamstress friend who moved to Russia). And to top it off, not only was this perfectly fitted form located right on the premises themselves, but it resides in…The Design Center!!!.........




THE DESIGN CENTER

Now, I have waxed elaborately and extensively in this very blog on the virtues of this special new space that the Scrap Exchange provides to the good public, should they need such a space..  (BLOG LINK to another awesome experience at the Scrap Exchange Design Center). Herein is a studio equipped with all manner of equipment, from hot t-shirt presses, to industrial sewing machines, to die cutters, to dress forms!!!

And so it was that things did begin to fall into place for this improbable dress....