Ola! We are back from our first adventure in New Mexico. There will definitely be other adventures there, we loved it that much.
So, what did we do? What did we see? What did we make? Well, let me tell you.
Our trip began with a long afternoon of traveling from Albany to Chicago to Albuquerque. When we finally made it into our rental car, we couldn't find the Days Inn. After chatting with the nice folks at corporate, who tried to sell us advertising, we finally got the desk clerk to guide us to the door. We were pooped!
On Wednesday, we piled our things back into our little red chevy and made our way along Rt. 14, affectionately referred to as The Turquoise Trail. It was beautiful and open and vast. Since there is so little snow and no use of solvents and salt to melt it all, the roads and cars hold up a lot better. And it allows the area to even have interesting and artistic overpasses!
We stopped in a great little town called Madrid ( maa-drid ). It had a wonderful gallery called Chumani Gallery. Cerillos turquoise is mined here and there were some stunning pieces. I even took a little home with me as a pre-birthday birthday present.
We had lunch at The Mine Shaft Tavern. Very local, very friendly, very country. I loved it.
Arriving in Santa Fe, we easily found our hotel and headed out for to explore. The air was chilly and crisp and magnificent. We sat on an adobe balcony overlooking downtown Santa Fe at The Marble Tap Room, a local brewery.
We participated in several classes. I took a polymer clay class with Meredith Arnold. She was an amazing instructor, funny and very knowledgeable. We learned to use foil and buna, which is produced for the car industry. I made a tile bracelet, which I still have to sand and restring. I took a bead stitching class with Larkin Van Horn. I like to dabble in quilting and love the idea of adding beading to the fabric. This class was a perfect introduction. We learned some different techniques and I made a beaded button!
I also took a workshop using resin clay. It was just okay. There was little instruction and the results were very elementary. Perhaps with a little more time playing with it, it could be useful but, I'm not convinced.
My darling husband took two metal-smithing workshops with Kim St. Jean. I crashed the second one and was welcomed.
These are his creations.
We visited all the vendors and came home with quite a stash of beads and findings and whatnots.
And to complete our trip, we drove up to Abiquiu (Ah-bee-cue) and took in the most remarkable scenery. It was Sunday, so all the touristy things were closed. We saw the wall around Georgia O'Keeffe's house and the gate around the Santa Fe opera. But, we decided that since we're planning to go back, we were okay with waiting.
It was wonderful, truly wonderful. And you can see all our photos from the trip in my facebook album.
Dreams are only as big as we can dream them. My dreams have grown after witnessing the vast beauty of this place.
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