Andy Dear | Monday, 19 December 2022
In this week's "A Fly On The Wall" Series, we'll take a look at The Ice Blue & Purple Grizzly
You wouldn't know it upon first meeting him, but Dr. Tebbetts was a monstrously creative individual. I've alluded to many of his artistic outlets in the past, but one that I haven't touched on was "metal sculpting". About 12 years ago, John purchased a ranch in Montana, on which he built a vacation home. And, when I say built, mean he taught himself how to operate architectural blueprint software, then designed the place from the ground up without any help from outside sources. Once the place was built, he then decided to teach himself the craft of artistic metalworking so that he could personally fabricate all of the light fixtures in the house that he designed. Everything he touched he wanted to leave his own personal fingerprints on.
The Ice blue And Purple Grizzly is no different. I look at this one as a psychedelic take on Norman Duncan's famous Cockroach pattern. Although John's pattern utilizes Grey Fox in place of squirrel tail for the collar, this tie would look right at home with the traditional squirrel tail dressing. The Ice Blue & Purple Grizzly also showcases John's traditional keys style Krystal Flash Head with multiple bands of color to match the layered wing stack.
One of the unintended consequences of this particular color scheme is that it also closely resembles many of the multi-colored freshwater sunfish species, which serve as a major source of prey for all species of Bass, as well as Pike and Musky. Throw in a monofilament weed guard, and you are off to the races for just about anything that swims and eats in the sweet stuff.
On an unrelated note, the American Society Of Plastic Surgeons ran a nice piece on John shortly after his death. Steve Byrd, one of John's close colleagues and friends did a fantastic job of capturing what John's life was all about.
You can read it here: https://www.plasticsurgery.org/for-medical-professionals/publications/psn-extra/news/remembering-john-tebbetts-md
Hope you all are having a great week!
Andy
