The Crafts... They Come to Us.

One of the great pleasures of living in the East Valley is the bi-annual Tempe Arts Festival. They have one in winter (usually around my brithday) and spring (last weekend). It's a great place to go Christmas shopping for one of a kind merchandise and a fun place to spend a day walking around and enjoying the incomperable Arizona spring.

Usually there's one dominant craft at the festival. A few years ago it was these brass or copper garden stakes that had like a little sculpted beetle or dragonfly on the end. This year, without question, the number one theme was tie-dyes. There were a lot of what I guess they'd probably called Hand-colored clothing, from scarves to ascots to cravats. There were tie-dyed briefs in almost novelty-large sizes. There were tie-dyed onesies for the li'l'uns.

But, there was also this fantastic hat:
It had a partner that had an entire preserved snake's head on the hat band, but Leah refused to try it on.

We really didn't buy much. I took out $60, but we only got lunch at Sack's Art of Sandwicherie (the best sandwiches in Arizona--an institution), and three jars of salsa. Leah got some black bean salsa, and I got a limited edition Habanero salsa that they save for people like me who are dicks about salsas not really being spicy enough.

Some of the coolest things that I've seen at the Art Festival are these cheese trays that are actually melted-down-and-flattened liquor and wine bottles, and there are always a couple of really neat artists. I really liked these architectural renderings of childhood subjects (they have a series of cocktail pieces that they don't have on the kids' site that are fantastic) and these semi-camp, Southwestern iron sculpture. I think that eventually Leah and I decided that we liked the art but could do without the crafts.