A Rookery Of Tredknests

Well, as I mentioned, I've really had a blast developing a brood of different subspecies of tredknots, from the motherload that I just recently hatched for the Festival For The Eno.
In the last post, I shared a few of the new Dragon's Eyes that I fashioned for the Festival.

Next up is tredknests, and then maybe I'll move to Tirariums.

The trednest was originally developed, as kind of a hybrid with a dragons eye, as a piece for the Burrito Bash Fundraiser Auction for the Haw River Assembly at the recent Pittsboro General Store. I wanted to create something that had some of the riparian wildlife magic to it, that you might find along the majestic Haw River. The result was the first tredknest, which featured a winding knot of orangy yellow Kenda bike tire, coiled sereptitiously around a 'knest' of on glassy babymoon hubcap egg, nestled into a purple feather boa.
I really felt like this hit its mark, and was relieved when then Events Cooridinator accepted it at the last minute for the fundraiser (God Bless Germane!).
I was then thrilled, when Ken Moore, builder and co founder of UNC Botanical Gardens bid on the piece, and when my very good friend Diane Swan made the final bid. I had, in fact had Diane in mind as I rushed to create the piece (knowing she and her partner Scotty Young would be at the event).
I could just see it resting on their porch in Bynum. And shore enough, fate it be!

The next development for the tredknest occured when Jimmy and Audrey Shwankle happened in to my studio, one 3rd Friday Art Walk, in Siler City.
Audrey had a brother who was a  trucker, and got married in Las Vegas, and Audrey wanted to give him an Wedding present.  They were really taken by the tredknot form, and asked if they could commission an artpiece incoroporating the form for a wedding gift.

 So I got to work, and what I came up with is now what is known as the tredknest.
Like the original, this involves a tredknot of bicycle tire, with a mirror buried within a knest of feathers.
However, for this, I traded the babymoon out for a smaller rear view mirror. There are some other contraptions involved, but I can't really talk about those here (trade secret).

A new addition though is a backing, of reclaimed cardboard, foam rubber and upholstery fabric.
As I mentiioned in the post about Dragon's Eyes, this backing really helps to finnish out the piece, and adds another element of depth of character to the piece.

I was extremely pleased with this particular batch of tredknests.
This particular tredknot form is quite tricky to master (as the beads of the tires rarely want to behave, to allow a graceful form). But have made in the neighborhood of 50 of these forms now, my skill level increased, to yield a much higher success rate.

 And additionaly, through this experience, of what works and doesn't work aesthetically with this line, I have honed into what I consider to be some pretty exquisite pairing of tire, feather and fabric.
Humbly, I would say unto thee that I think this gradual heightining of skill and aesthetic sensibilities shows in this years collection.

Strawberry Milk Knot 

(a true Bessie)

The idea for this knot began, as is often the case, with the tire.

For some reason, these white wall tires knots always remind me of a the black and white jersey? cows that I see in Chatham County. So I have come to call these knots "Bessie'"s.

I made the first Bessie for my friend Tessa, which my girlfriend Carrie at the time commissioned for her. It suited her so well, and she seems to adore it (it hangs in her bathroom, which I think of as a compliment, coming from a woman). Tess is a really strong woman- an activist, who helps lead/teach some community gardening education classes in Siler City. I wanted to make another one of these bessies, to honor Tess, for another strong woman out there.

The strawberry milk bit was an afterthought (I just had this dotted red upholstery fabric laying around).

But what a deliscious afterthought!

SAFARI KNOT

Perhaps this one is a little kitshy, but what's wrong with a little kitsch?!

It was that leapord print fabric I tell ya, these fabric backings are causing kitschy wild things to happen around here! But look how it brings the whole thing together, willya? 

PINK THANG / PALM BEACH KNOT

That hot pink feather boa has been sitting in my closet for yeeahs, yeeah's I tell ya, 

waiting for its moment in the sun.

Well, its day has finally come. 

Phassined to one hellluva knot, and finished with a cool minty blue/green derriere, 

this tredknot is to die foa!

I'm caught between being embarrased to hang this in my booth, and swooning over it.

Palm beach aside, or not, against that burlap background, you've got to admit, Palm Beach and all, its pretty exotic.

Mallard Knot

On maybe a slightly more mature note, but no less exquisite in my eyes, 

is this distinguished tredknot.

I remember a movie I saw several years ago in SF, called Birds in Flight, which followed birds on their migrations on what were at times perilous journeys.

One very touching scene was of a group of beautiful ducks who were making their way through a polluted landscape of Eastern Europe. You couldn't help but feel and pull for these brave and beautiful creatures, as they made their hurried way through the darkened, sooty skies, and through slick, polluted once marsh- waters. You also could notice their sense of vital urgency, as they tried to get through this doomy chapter of their journey as quickly as possible.

So anyways, this knot is perhaps a small tribute to those ducks. 

I think that this one I am going to have to set aside for a gallery in Asheville that I have been talking with.

PURPLE HAZE KNOT

This here is one wicked knot. So much so, that I am not quite sure that its interior does the knot justice yet.

However, I do think the purple does it right, and 

For me, this has a bit more fierce and masculine energy to it. While I like the purple, I am considering trying a new color, maybe a yellow, orange or lime green. 

YET UNNAMED KNOT

One of my very favorites of this series was this one, whose name has not yet revealed itself to me.

For some reason, it just strikes me as straighforward, matter of fact, and utterly beautiful.

I guess that I could say that, to me this piece strikes a perfect, and enchanting balance 

between strength and femininity.

 It reminds me a little bit of an once upon a time love of mine.

Maybe I will name her Tila.

 Here are few more close ups of Palm Beach Knot, just cause its so... glamorous!

(the shape that you see reflected in the mirror at the tredknests center is a tiresphere called "Sphere for Charles Woodsend" that was hanging above where I was photographing the knot. I had never witnessed this piece from this angle, pretty neat!)

Dragon's Eyes

When I recently posted about the bumper crop of tredknots that created for The Festival For The Eno (see Next Stop On The Tredknot Train), I mentioned that some of these I would be vetting for Tirariums (tm), some for Dragon's eyes (tm), and some for tredknests (tm).

Well, I had a real blast this past two weeks training these tredknots in their new job skills.

Here are a few Dragon's Eyes, that resulted. Like the tredknests, a new addition to this design is a backing of fabric, foam rubber and carboard, all reclaimed materials. This really finnishes  and completes the pieces, and matching, and augmenting the tire's colors and attitudes with those of the fabrics helps to give more interesting depth of character to each piece. Strange, like a person, you don't know an art object until you know its back side too! This is why I like to treat even reptire's wallhung works as sculpture.

Additionally, each of these comes with a brass hook for easy mounting. Please see below, at the bottom, how my friends Scotty Young and Diane Swan mounted their 'conversion tredknot' Dragon's Eye (purchased at a Haw River Assembly benefit auction) to great effect on the front of their front porch in Bynum.

BUTTER MILK KNOT

IAGO KNOT

BENGAL TIGER KNOT

 

Alright, sorry, I'm having trouble finding those above promised photos of Diane and Scotty's Front Bynum Porch at moment

But here is a really nice picture of Diane with her newly dragonified Dragon's Eye.

Diane, a wonderful artist and/of wood worker, has super kindly and sweetly lent me her shop van to use for this festival (yet again).

 God Bless Diane Swan!

Interlude Two: Turtle Time

Terrapin High Rise

Little Harocio Alexander is settling into his new digs.

As soon as he arrived, I hit the rail road tracks out back, to find him a good place to rest on. This would not be easy, as the tank is a tall, vertical one.

But Voila, I found him the perfect island, that comes with a parking garage!

I hope that he is enjoying his vacation in Little Atlantis. I sure have enjoyed watching him. And he seems very curious about studio life, or life in general. He'll be sprung to a pond soon.

Turtle Orbs/Swimming With The Spheres

Japanese Condominium

REBIRTH OF A TIRE LOTUS

I have been thinking a bit lately about the special process that takes an old tire to a new habitat for plant life. There seems to be a bit more there than meets the eye, perhaps even in the realm of the allegorical.

 I recently tried to express a little of this in a poem that I am including on the interior of the a hang tag, to accompany what I am called these "tire lotus planters'.

While of course, one could say that a hang tags job is primarily to sell, I would argue that its job is to explain what is special about the object, to leave the prospective customer to decide if this resonates with him or her. I hope that my hang tag does that work, to put this objects case forward, and explain why a tire planter is a special thing, and also, equally, why it is a special thing to own one.

Interlude: Great Ball Of Tire In The Downtown Gazeebo

     These days, most of this blogging is done down here at the Courtyard Cafe, in the middle of the night, either very late or very early in the morning. At this time, it is nice and cool and peaceful here in this silent heart of down town Siler City.

    One pleasent surprise for me lately is seeing a sculpture in action that the Arts Incubator bought from me last Christmas, to hang from their gazeebo in courtyard. It is a simple tiresphere, from the Great Balls of Tire Series, a sphere of bicycle tire beads, removed to make tredknots. I pulled this together a few years ago, when I heard they were going to spend 40 on some stupid chicken wire light ball.
I said, I can make you one of those from grape vine for cheaper! So I tried, and I was wrong. It was more difficult to make a perfect sphere from grape vine than I had bargained for. But then, wallowing in defeat in my studio, it occured to me that if we wanted round, well, I've got round! So I hooked these up, and they really took to them, hanging two in their gallery for several years, and showing them in their christmas sale, where Ron and Loretta Wachs picked one up/commissioned one.

    So ANYWAYS, the NC Arts Incubator decided to buy one (I thought) for their christmas display last year, which was really nice, but then I kind of forgot about it.

    Well, coming down here these summer nights, it is a treat to see that they have left it hanging, and Joan has been leaving the lights on at night. Seeing it dangling and twinkling there, swaying in the wind, I don't know, it sort of gives me a certain good feeling.

      Reading about Czech history lately (for an upcoming visit to the land of my forbearers), I am learning what an important place public sculptures have in the mind and psyche of a city.
I don't really know if Joan means to leave the lights on this sculpture at night.
But, with all of the troubles of financial woes and blows that the Arts Incubator has had to weather lately, I am personally choosing to see this sculpture, swaying up there in the wind, trying its best to keep twinkling with its few remaining bulbs, as a monument to the NC Arts Incubator, and the downtown revitalization effort, that we are all attempting to catalize down here.

It looks like it is time to replace some of the bulbs!

Planting the terrible tredknot Tirariums!

OK, so this wasn't terrible at all. In fact, I might say this was the highlight of my preparations.

But before I get to the fun part, I feel like maybe I should provide a little bit of background.
You see, Tredknot Tirarium Planters have been a long time in the making, and I feel like, in some ways, little by little, they are now rapidly becoming my strongest product line.

HISTORY OF THE TIRARIUM
I came up with this design several years ago, when I was working hard getting to know the ins and outs of the tredknot. At some point, it occured to me that the tredknot form, in its basket like form, might be a very good vessel to hold the habitat and root ball of a plant. To see a spider plant fresh green spears exploding from this knotted form some how seems just right.

My mother, Edie, who is really good with both plants and designing things has given me a lot of encouragement to explore this direction, (in fact, it MIGHT have even been her idea.., I'll have to ask her about this). Either way, I thank her, because the further that I go down this road, the more that I realize that it is a good and right one.

SPIDER PLANTS, AND BEYOND!
In fact, for 2 years now, Edie has gathered up baby spider plants for me to plant in my planters.
(insert photo), as she has again this year. My good friends Patricia has also been good enough to save me some from her plants in Lewisburg, PA, which she sent 2 yrs ago via the US Postal service! (if you bought one of my planters that year, you may now own one!)

However, while I do plan to use these beautifull little striped babies in my pots, I am proud to say that I have in fact graduated from spider plant school! Which is to say, that I have finally discovered that there  is a whole world of plants out there, that look DAMN GOOD, wrapped in a rubber sari!

So for past few months, I've had a little after work project of mentally collecting a small army of plants, by visiting the selection at both Lowes, and B&L on 15-501. I've had to try to resist my temptation to keep from collecting these as I see them, as I figure they might be better off in Janie's good hands at B&L. (However, I haven't always been succussful, though all have faired well in my care, I'm proud to report..).

Well, this past week, I broke the piggy bank, and made my haul.

After a good run on B&L, I went next to Lowes, where I ran into sculptor Bill Moore in the parking lot. Bill told me that, peering into my tire, plant and masonry edging stuffed Toyota Carolla, his son asked, "what is all that stuff?". "I don't know" he replied, "but he needs a pick up truck." 

This is not the first time I have heard this from a sculptor..

SPEED DATING FOR PLANTS

So, I have to clarify that I did not just go gang busters at Lowes. Indeed, I spent a good 2 or 3 hours there, carefully making my selections. So long was I there after a long day of work, that eventually I had set my plants down on a patio table so I could sit myself down and think about them, in between fending off employees.

So what I came home with was a Very rich assortment of plants- geraniums, drucenia, snake plant, succulents, and many more, especially chosen for my collection of planters.

Factors to consider were that, just like plants, some tires like a lot of direct sun, and others prefer shade.
Therefor I needed to match similar personalities, to create a happy union. After all, these two are going to be pea in pod for the long haul (owner willing).

Of course, other factors are how much heat is a plant going to want (say radiating from an all black tire, or reflecting from a white wall; what kind of soil draning will they want, and finally of course, the aesthetics of finding a pleasing and good looking match. If figure, if a plant looks great with its mate, it has a better chance of survival with its new owner.

So, when I'd weighed all of these as best I could at B&L and Lowes, and brought them home, I still had a little match-making to do.

This was quite alot of fun, matching the colorful striped bands of rubber with those of foliage and flower! I hope and trust that my customers at the Festival For The Eno will be as struck as I was and am by the combination that leapt out at me.

However, when the dust settled, and these obvious matches were made (mostly with eccentrics like the fiery pink geraniums), we were still left with a group of plants and trednots who had more subtle personalities.
And thus, I turned towards an excercize culled from modern dating, and that would be 'speed-dating', what proved to be a very efficient way of matching two complimentary objects.

So what I did, I just lined these straglers up on my porch one balmy night (romantic no?), and saw who gravitated to who. You know what, some very interesting combinations occured, that weren't so obvious before. And one of the humble brown planters ran off with a wild pink geranium!
In the wild covalent orgy of plant are rubber tire knots, you just never know what to expect!

Plant Speed Dating At Dusk

(Anecdotally, I suggested speed dating to match patients with doctors to a young woman from Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance. She laughed, and said she'd pass it on. No date yet though...)

Motley Crew

Snake Plant Habitat in the making

Next Stop On The Tredknot Train

Well,
  I tell you what, in case you didn't notice, its hot!
Highs in the 105s, and being situated as my studio is, above a diner and a bakery, with no AC, its Really hot! But I'm getting through with my 2 part AC (spray bottle and a fan), and am PLOWING ahead, cause I've got  ALOT to deliver this year!

Knext stop on the tredknot train, after the cha-CHING! coin purses, (which I just got done literally branding with my home-made branding iron, just to make it a little hotter!), was a whole yipping litter of about 25 tredknots, these made from bicycle tires with the bead left on.

Here is me upon completion, proud papa of a big new litter.

Here they are, the brood, clinging to their mother's back. Or are they nursing?...

Ahhh, motherhood...

Of this brood, about 15 I am cultivating for the life of tredknot 'Tirarium' (tm) planters. I've also selected about 5 of the most wicked buggers for "Dragon's Eye"s (tm), and another 5 of the sweetest thangs for "treadknests" (also tm!).

I'll report on my progress in training these pups for their various duties in life in upcoming blog posts.