It featured a tredknot bowl of hybrid bike tire, woven into a sort of shallow basket. Holding the space with in this, was a floor of reflective baby moon, like the moon reflected in the surface of a pond, so that the sky looks as though it was sitting at the ponds bottom. And cushioning this moon, was a silken lining of feathers, in this case from a purple chicken, it seems, but you get the picture.
Strangely, I wonder why, but as I made this thing, in the 1/2 hour before it was due, I was thinking of my good friend Diane Swan, and her great beau, and bandmate, Scotty Young, and their charming home in Bynum, perched just up the hill from that cool running Haw River...
Why was I thinking of these two cool cats, and their abode?
Well, I guess I must have been thinking that that was the nest, where this knest belonged!...
I can't quite recall who was playing that night. Was it Saludos Compi? Anyhow, the bidding was tense.
My good friend, and one time co-worker from School House of Wonder, Ken Moore, who incidentaly dug, mounded and planted most of the NC Botanical Gardens by hand, put in the first bid! He wanted it, and you know what, it suited him like a T!
However, once she set eyes on it, Diane herself wanted it more! And at the end of the night, lo and behold, it went home with the people, to the home that I had dreamed it would!
I only found out much later, from Germane James, who, taking one look at my pitiful expression, a had allowed this donation way past its deadline/bedtime, that the piece had in fact been one of the highest earners of the evening! (which I find a little hard to believe, considering my company there, but I'll take it!).
ANYWAYS, to Bynum to knest went, and there it rested for several years. However, as I visited from time to time, soon it was discovered that the used innertube I had employed, to hold every thing in place, was no longer worthy of its duty (tires are made to withstand the outside elements, innertubes really are not). And so, for about a year, I rode around with a new lawnmower innertube in my trunk, completely forgetting about it everytime I set foot in their wonderful house, full of a great company, food and things.
Until just the other day, I up and obsconded with it! I seized it and returned it back to my studio.
And there, returning it back to the work bench at which is was hewn, I went back to work on it, and fashioned it a new style. It was after all, perhaps 3 years since I had made this, my first!
And in that 3 years, its DNA had evolved, though, as DNAgoes, essentially remained the same.
Since its feather boa had been appropriated in its derilect state, I opted for a redu, that would do without the feathers, a glassy dragon's eye.
And so, with the new inner tube, a new set of panty hose, and some armorall and glass cleaner, I refashioned and sparkled up the piece, into a glimmering dragon's eye.
Perhaps I had Scottsman Scotty more in mind this time around.
I delivered it them the other day.
Scotty took right to it
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and equally gratifying, so did Diane.
I just score over and over with these two trusty friends, again and again!
