Small Spaces 1: Silver Tears Brings Nothing but Custom Joy
John Davis makes tiny tiny trailers that not only charm their owners but have also been all over magazines and TV.
John Davis’ Silver Tears Campers began five years ago when his wife, The Roanoke Times photographer Stephanie Klein-Davis, and their children Wyeth and Aria grew tired of tent camping. Davis researched alternatives and learned the teardrops that were popular in the 1940s had been phased out. Inspired by older cars, he built a camper in a Woodie design (using mahogany on the exterior) and then sold it to Orvis. Davis’s camper designs have now starred at some of the fanciest trade shows – including at an Architectural Digest event where Oprah Winfrey sat and visited. For a Garden & Gun display, Davis turned a camper into a custom dog kennel complete with a shotgun rack – and sold the prototype during the show. Another of his designs was selected among the best “South-centric” creations at the same show.
Davis’s latest effort with the campers has been to build them to a lighter weight, so they can be towed by the smallest of vehicles. Orders continue to come in for custom designs, such as turning a 31-foot trailer into a traveling leather goods shop for Moore & Giles of Forest, and building a hit-the-road headquarters camper for two chefs who want to travel but will run their restaurants using iPads on the road. The camper for the chefs includes special storage for knives and iPads in the food preparation area, which is located on the rear of the campers. More recently, Davis developed a theme camper for another Roanoke company, Black Dog Salvage, which will be featured in Black Dog’s appearances on DIY Network.
Davis has successfully maneuvered through the world of furniture making and general design since 1989 by changing with the market. He first operated an antiques store and established a reputation as a fine furniture maker. His latest turn in business takes his talents to building vintage small campers and running Roanoke Airsoft, a shop featuring the pellet guns and paraphernalia.
The businesses operate from a series of buildings in the Roanoke Industrial Center at Ninth Street and Riverland Road in southeast Roanoke.
In his companies, Davis has been able to “be a little artsy,” which satisfies that side of his personality. He still gets to do fine furniture designs in commissioned work. A recent client had him convert a piano cabinet into a china cabinet.
“We go where we have to go,” Davis says. He and his staff – generally five people including Tom Ayres, who has been with him from the beginning – currently work with a North Carolina speaker manufacturer to design cabinetry for speakers. The market is seeing a trend towards making technology more attractive, Davis points out.
Along the way, there have been designs that faded away with changing markets or became so popular many manufacturers began making them. These include a coffee table made from factory carts.
Before William Alan Furniture of High Point, N.C., closed, Davis Design had a variety of fine furniture items in its catalog.
“I’d be a lot happier if one of these products stuck,” he says. Davis is his own inspiration, however. His latest business, Roanoke Airsoft, grew out of his and his son Wyeth’s interest in the sport. The shop where they bought supplies was closing because the owner was retiring so Davis bought its stock and moved the store to his Service Avenue address. It is open two days a week, but already it is being integrated into Davis’s other interest. A Silver Tears camper is on display in the Roanoke Airsoft showroom, which is open two days a week.
