BERNADETTE...

Okay... back to Spring Break, LOL...

Monday after Easter I spent the afternoon w/ Bernadette Fuentes!! I was so excited to get to know her a little bit better than our first meeting, LOL...I think I made a little bit better impression this time. (not too many tears!) :o) We spent hours talking, went to lunch at a wonderful little neighborhood coffee shop, Taza De Cafe, that has FABULOUS sandwiches (the MATEO on ciabatta bread, TO DIE FOR!)... & I even showed her some technical computer stuff, LOL! Then she took me out to her studio & we torched for a few hours. What an honor!! She showed me how she makes her hand pendants & showed me how to use enamels & how to blow shards! I was so grateful for the time that she gave me, it really was a wonderful visit! I met her husband, Paul, too... what a nice guy.

The cool thing...turns out the next day was a meeting up @ GlassCraft, Inc w/ their local lampworking group called the "Bead Cluster" & this was going to be Bernadette's first time going since she moved to Colorado...& she's a little bit shy... so she asked me if I wanted to come along! Of course I did!! :o) I was up in her area that day, anyway, @ my sister Jeri's silversmithing class, so I just headed back over to her place afterwards where we hung out some more, chatting & looking @ eachother's beads. I was thrilled to get some feedback from her about mine... she thinks I'm on the right track. ;o) Her 50th birthday was the following week, so I surprised her w/ one of my lampwork kaleidoscopes! She loved it!


The meeting was a simple pot luck & everyone just hung out chatting, so I got to meet all sorts of Denver area lampworkers, a few I had seen online (Leslie Anne Bitgood - Crazy Woman Glass... super sweet, very friendly lady!). There were a few more that I wish had been there (you know who you are!) I would've loved to have met. :o( Next time. I really appreciated Bernadette bringing me along & I she appreciated having me there for backup. :o)

Anyway... what a sweet sweet lady, Bernadette. I am so glad that I contacted her & so grateful for the time that she spent w/ me. She's been around the lampworking world forever :o) ...so it was a true honor.

Next time I'm out there I'll contact a few others... I was a little bit shy, some were a little bit busy, LOL, & my 2nd week out there was a little bit too crazy. :o)