This one’s a gift to a writer friend of mine, to honor two of his passions. There will be another post plugging his writing once it comes out from his new publisher. The platform for Lynx Engineer is a Hurley hat from 2006, in black cotton with silk-screened white stripes. The ears are made from…
Read More Lynx Engineer HatI just learned that my long-time mentor and art representative Bill Stewart passed last month. It’s sad news. I’m having difficulty processing it, then I feel guilty, because far closer folks to Bill have the full weight of that grief on them. So I’m going to celebrate what Bill and his wife Vicky mean to…
Read More In Memoriam: William ‘Bill’ StewartTwice a year since 2010, I’ve made the category award ribbons for a major regional art festival. No other festival boasts anything like our awards. The Tempe Festival of the Arts opens from December 6 – 8, 2019. This season, the Featured Artist is Arizona’s own Jackson Ocheltree, who crafts gorgeous pieces using lampworked glass,…
Read More Tempe Festival of the Arts Awards, Fall 2019After a couple of decades of dithering around with it, ‘Needle and Sword’ is finally becoming a novella instead of a short story. Possibly a book, since I have a tendency to stuff too much into manuscripts. I’ll be honest: I’m pantsing most of it, since I have no idea how the two larger stories…
Read More Another book cover: Needle and SwordMy brother would not want me to sit still and mourn. Or is that a selfish excuse to keep moving, keep fighting? Survivors’ guilt is a bitch, folks. It sinks in claws and never quite lets go, and makes us second-guess all our impulses. Anyhow, if I want to go anywhere in publishing fiction, it’s…
Read More A book coverI’m a big fan of Channel Awesome’s THE NOSTALGIA CRITIC, its host Doug Walker, and the show’s reviews of (often) older movies: it skewers commercial favorites, shines a light on forgotten classics, and generally advances media critiques in a way I only wish Goodreads & Amazon would allow for books. Doug Walker’s recent review of…
Read More Side characters add sizzle!
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Back in 1992 I waffled around with a short story about a warrior-woman, an embroiderer, and the city they both loved. That became NEEDLE AND SWORD, which was fan-published shortly afterward. I’ve had it on the blog for the longest time. I’m getting ready to take it down, in preparation for releasing a longer, slightly…
Read More Needle And Sword: new covers!Summary: with new pricing and display policies, the US Goodwill charity risks alienating the very collectors and upcycler artists it has been using to gentrify its brand identity. When I was a kid, thrift stores were forbidden territory. My mother had a not-unfounded horror of thrift stores as vectors of disease and infestation*. She also…
Read More Goodwill Loses Relevance?Okay, now I can share the insanity that helped lower my bank account and rebuild my bead supply. In late March and late April of this year, I was lucky enough to buy the combined bead troves of two amazing women. I know their names but am protecting their privacy and legacy. One is in…
Read More Bead Hoard!Swarovski crystal (and its imitators) are having a resurgence in fashion right now, in gem-embellished clothing and shoes, jewelry, fingernails, and even architectural elements. But Swarovski…the real thing…is rather pricey. The cheapest I’ve found is around $3 to $6 for 144 pieces of 1 to 2mm ‘flatbacks’, the glass gems most easily fastened onto surfaces…
Read More Harvesting Heat-Fixed CrystalsNineteen years ago I moved into the lower-rent end of a pricey Phoenix subdivision, courtesy of dual incomes and the dot-com bubble bursting at just the right time. The backyard went from Bermuda grass and gum trees to a minimalist sweep of gravel, Indonesian statues, and oleander. It’s always been the stepping stone to something…
Read More New Walls, New WindowsA hearty shout-out to Jamie L. Brewer, who did a lovely job reworking some of the problem areas on my website when I didn’t have time and know-how. (Have I mentioned the new job with 50+ hours a week? Or all the fiction I’m trying to finish writing this year? Or the art I have…
Read More Website revamped!A heads-up, dear readers. The Blue Night Blog will be undergoing some much-needed updates in the next few weeks. So if things look a little strange, or the blog is offline, don’t worry. I’ll be back to annoy and dazzle you soon enough. What’s in store? Changes in art: I’ll be updating my RL gallery…
Read More New Things On The HorizonThis weekend, downtown Tempe is closing off Mill Avenue and several surrounding streets for the year’s first Festival of the Arts. I’ve had a sneak peek at the attending artists, and there’s a lot to love in a few blocks of tree-shaded urban oasis. Plus music, festival food booths, and street art contests! Also, cool…
Read More Tempe Festival of the Arts Spring 2019I’ve been so busy with art and a new manufacturing job that I have completely neglected the Blue Night blog. Sorry, folks, I’ll try to carve some time out for bloggy stuff. In the meantime, I really love my job. First, a PSA: If you know someone going through a traumatic and dangerous breakup/divorce/etc, make…
Read More Rants from a neglected blogI guess 2019 will be The Year of the Hat for me. I love beading. I like hats. Don’t know why I didn’t stumble into hatbands before, but I’m here now. The Alexander Hatband was commissioned a little over a year ago by a good friend, a New Zealand-born sculptor moving away from Arizona after…
Read More Alexander Hatband: Finished!I make books, many of them out of cloth. Making a needle book is something that had never occurred to me before last weekend. This is the result: a 7×4.5×1.75″ vintage-inspired fabric needle book. Needle books are a popular trend among the craft and home-sewing crowd. Here’s a good tutorial for one that did inspire…
Read More Needle BookI live near a fairly affluent area with generations of rich teenagers and retirees. This means that Good Stuff appears in my local thrift stores. For the past few years, I’ve been collecting interesting fabric hats, with an eye to adapting them into gonzo wearable art pieces. The second* fiber art project of 2019 involves…
Read More First look: Dieselpunk ValkyrieI didn’t stop making book art sculptures in 2018. I just held off documenting them on this blog for a while, mostly for time constraints. Rocketship 1 -5 2.75×1.75×1.5” See more here: http://www.cranehanabooks.com/blog/2017/12/18/rocketship-fiber-art-books/ This edition of five accordion-fold books celebrates the (first?) Space Race, that of the 1950s and 1960s. Six pages, with title and colophon on…
Read More 2018 Book Arts & Text-Based ArtThis amazing show turns 50 years old this season. A cornerstone of Tempe civic pride since 1968, the Tempe Festival of the Arts has had all the usual ups, downs, and sideways distractions of big regional art fairs. If you’re in the Tempe AZ area this upcoming weekend (Nov 30-Dec 2, 2018), stop by Mill…
Read More Tempe Festival of the Arts: Fall 2018