Printing My Yoga Illustrations

Busy Working

"Sun Salutation"
new glass mobile I've been working on... capturing some yoga poses in the glass panels... this mobile shows the movement between poses, from namaste to mountain, forward bends to cobra to downward facing dog... let me know what you think! (there are a few more pictures if you click the listing)

Earrings
cleaning glass bits for earrings... I've been busy creating silver ear-wires as well... I love the little green earrings, and I finally have them in stock again :)
I think everyone needs a pair of these little sprouts

Yoga Card Sets
oh my goodness - I played with Jan's printing press yesterday and printed up a kazillion little yoga ladies... I am thinking card sets. I'll post more when they are dry and the project has progressed further...

New Printing in Glass

"Downward Facing Dog"

I've been printing my yoga ladies into glass... there is more to show... but I thought I'd throw up a taste test

"Forward Bend" Oh and Jan and I have listed more plates in our Etsy store... check it out - there are so many designs to choose from! Check out these wonderful robots (I LOVE!) - the boy robot has tulips and the girl robot is holding books :)

"Robots in Love"

image by Jan Christine

Yoga Ladies Hot Off the Press

Before my friend Jan left to go out of town I visited her studio and printed a few more yoga ladies... I sorta tweaked the first set just a bit (trimmed up odd ankles and wrists and whatnot) and also I had carved a Warrior Pose... all these test prints turned out great! Now I need to start printing these ladies into some glass :)

I Took My First Prints...

My yoga block carvings got their first print pulled today - big Thanks to Jan for allowing me to use her press and helping me out! What fun! Now I know what needs what on these blocks... I think I may work on them later tonight. They look great and they are already good enough that I could print into glass mobiles with them... but I'd like to fine them for printing cards and whatnot...

I've Been Carving

I've been working on new images to print into my glass mobiles. A sun salutation in kinetic glass mobile... that is what I'd like to make... so I've been drawing out some yoga poses and in the end I think I'd like to print paper cards and individual glass discs with these poses as well.

So the first thing I did was sketch... then last night I started carving. Below you can see my sketch book, above you can see the first blocks that I carved.

Thai Massage in Portland Oregon

This week I exchanged massage with a LMT here in Portland who specializes in traditional Thai massage. It was heaven! This is a short video of her working, check it out:

I found this video on her website and I had to share. Its hard to describe Thai massage. Its very gentle and soothing, you remain fully clothed and the massage therapist works over your entire body, from head to toe. Once the therapist has relaxed your muscles, they are then stretched out as if yoga was being done to your body. I have never experienced a massage that felt so good!

In Thailand this massage is part of the traditional multi-faceted approach to health care. Treating ailments is seen as a combination of herbal treatments, psychological/spiritual care and physical massage work. This tri-modal system is ancient and still practiced. At this point there is plenty of western medicine available in Thailand, but the Traditional Medicine is utilized as well.

When I went to Thailand back in 2000 I had the privaledge of going out to a temple in the countryside outside of Chiang Mai. I was studying Thai massage at the time and the Hospital where I was taking the class took a group of students out to work on local Thai farmers who had the day off because it was a national holiday (if I recall correctly it was the King's birthday). Out at this temple a lot of local people showed up to seek medical help. The Old Traditional Hospital had arranged to be there for the day with herbs and food and all the doctors. It was cute to see how the local people sought their health care. Most seemed to go up to the panel of doctors in groups. Walking up together they would chatter about their various ailments... even thru the language barrier (I do not speak any Thai other than friendly exchanges of Hello and how are you, etc) you could tell the people were trying to describe their problems together with their siblings or cousins around them, all chiming in their 2cents about what the major complaints were. It was funny to see this casual group diagnosis kind of thing. It was very honest. And then the doctors would write down their prescriptions on little colored slips of paper with directions to seek out the herbalists or the massage therapists or the monks (for spiritual help)... if they needed some massage work they would apprehensively hand one of us white kids their colored little slip of paper and we'd do some traditional Thai massage to their hard working bodies. It was pretty incredible. One old lady became so fond of me after her massage that she took me by the hand and found her sister and together they dragged me over to the food and made sure I had some lunch with them. It was cute. Again, I couldn't really speak to them... but I could say Hi and I had been taught the word for "pain" in case I might hurt someone :)

Anyhow, I digress with side-stories. I am full of them about Thai massage!

If you ever want to treat your body right, get your blood flowing and have the best massage of your life, contact Stephanie Glass and get a Traditional Thai Massage. And don't be affraid to request 2+hours, they are long massages, the longer the better! The massage I received on Monday lasted 3 hours and I was in heaven.

Traditional Thai Massage

Its time to take a breath.

Each week now I either give a massage or receive one.

After a long weekend of work I am so grateful to have the chance to get a massage from my friend Corrie. Years ago I contacted Corri and began the most wonderful friendship. We both are trained in Thai Massage and we worked out an arrangement to trade massage on a weekly basis. There were a few years there where we let the habit slip, but its back in action and such a wonderful part of my life.

Corri is awesome (if you are local and need a massage - she is a practicing LMT - check out her website Splendid Tranquility) and its fun to get together with her and make each other feel good. Last night she came over and gave me a thai massage. My body says a big THANK YOU.

If you have ever had a Traditional Thai Massage you know what I am talking about! :) This type of body work is similar to having someone do yoga to your body. It is an ancient and spiritual art, opening up the energy lines and freeing blockage from our systems. I have lots of knots to work on. I find the world to be very stressful right now, especially financially, and this makes me tense.

I studied Thai massage in Philadelphia at the Druya Network, working on my college buddies (lucky them!) to accumulate the 100 hours of practice I needed to complete the course. Then when I had certification I worked on a handful of clients there in Philly... it was a pretty good job, better than being a waitress (my other college job) although I found that most times I was scheduled to give a massage I felt like getting one! :) Self indulgent me! Also I much prefer working on my close personal friends, its such a pleasure to do so!

After moving to Portland, I no longer could maintain this casual side-job because Oregon rules mandate that I also complete the normal massage therapy training (Swedish Deep Tissue type work and another 100+hours of practice and $$ on courses) and pay for a state license, otherwise it is illegal for me to practice. In Philly my license in Thai massage and completion of certification was all I needed. In Oregon my 3 licenses (pictured on the left) are useless as far as the law is concerned.

While I don't have any passion to become a professional massage therapist (I love being a glass artist), I adore this modality and it fills a wonderful little nook of my life.

I traveled to Thailand in 2000 and took all the certification classes again at the Old Traditional Hospital in Chiang Mai, as well as a course in reflexology and acupressure from a monk at Wat Po.

Back in Philly I was taught this Sanskrit prayer that went along with the traditions. It was a goal of mine to one day make it to Thailand and hear Thai people say this prayer, I craved the glory of the audible experience. And then to finally have this in Thailand a few years later was really funny! I wish I had been able to record it. The Thai people literally sing the prayer, the words are as sing-song to them as it was to me (I had overlooked the obvious fact that Thai people do not speak Sanskrit!!). But they say this prayer at the Traditional Hospital twice a day every day, so they really enjoy the process, some of them belt it out like a Hymn at church. Its awesome.

My study at the Old Traditional Hospital was one of the most indulgent and incredible months of my life. 3 weeks of Thai pampering: great food, massage, ginger tea, sunset get-togethers, late night drinking sessions and early morning prayers before class. It was complete bliss, I'd highly recommend the experience to anyone. I filled a whole little book with delicious stories of the things that I experienced there. It was simply out-of-this-world AMAZING.

pictured below is a poster illustrating the energy lines as the Traditional Thai Medicine describes (its very similar to Traditional Chinese Medicine chi lines, the Thai system simply has 10 where the Chinese system has hundreds)
So today, years later, I still chant the Sanskrit prayer from time to time when I need to get focused, it soothes my bubbling brain. And my massage training has become like this secret skill of mine - I can do the most amazing massage. Seriously, I'm not even bragging, its the massage itself, it takes hours and its awesome. Oh and don't even get me started on the foot massage that I learned from the Monk - its just heaven. Life seems to be so depressing sometimes, but massage is just bliss.

Yoga

I have been working on my yoga again lately.

Both in the glass studio and on my body.

My brother now has the WE Fit and we've all been having fun with it and getting in shape (its nothing new to me to learn that my body mass index is a little disappointing).

The WE is fun, I like how it makes you very aware of where your center of balance is. This is very key to yoga.

Since I have more free time lately (for instance today I got to work in the studio rather than sitting outside at my booth at the Portland Saturday Market! whoopee! The PSM is closed during Jan and Feb) - its been easier for me to do more yoga in the mornings.

Last week I did yoga 3 times. This is huge for me. It feels so good for my body to get back into it. This morning I kicked my own ass with a "Strength" yoga routine by Rodney Yee that had me doing push-ups and downward dogs for 25 minutes. phew. My shoulders will be sore tomorrow! But it was great.

Balance is key to life, both emotionally and physically. Without yoga I feel more moody and my body starts to have more and more aches and pains. Its amazing that some mindful stretching and relaxation can be so pivotal in balancing my nerves and helping me keep grounded. I couldn't live without it. Even though I slack occasionally, yoga will always be a part of my life. That is a conscious choice that I make.

Glass Yoga Ladies

Seems there was a yoga class going on in my photo studio today. The ladies were trying to look their best under the bright flood lights.

I listed a whole little crew of glass ladies doing yoga in my etsy shop... and a few beautiful little trees. Oh my goodness, one has a bird it, the bird is super tiny. Gotta go check it out

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the Story behind the Little Yoga Ladies

I do live demonstrations at the Portland Saturday Market with my glass torchworking. With no kiln present, I use borosilicate glass and create little bitty things so that thermal shock won't make them fall apart on the spot. Later I anneal them at home in my kiln.

I have made all sorts of things over the years in my demonstration booth... everything from frogs and teddy-bears to a whole baseball team (each player was less than half an inch tall and I also made fans sitting on chairs, kids sitting on benches, a water cooler, etc - sorry I have no pictures of this scene... the whole set could be arranged on a square napkin).

Well one day while making little fairies, I simply did not put the wings on the fairy and I made her meditating like a little yoga lady. Usually in the morning I would prefer to be doing yoga, not sitting outside in front of a bunch of gawking tourists, performing torchworking demonstrations. So I starting making these little ladies, living vicariously thru them. And it was fun to put them in various different yoga positions. Only a matter of time before I put one in the "downward dog" pose. Soo funny, and so incredibly small. I've done yoga nearly all my life and it has taken things to a new level of smiles to make these little ladies. A while ago I had to break out my old book of crazy yoga poses, thats where the pose from the picture above came from :)

Then my friend Danielle taught me how to make little bitty boxes out of old photographs, and the whole thing came together. Now when you purchase one of these little treasures, it comes delicately held in a bitty handmade box. Many of the boxes are made of old show postcards, as an artist I always seem to have too many of these around and I feel bad throwing them out. So now they become packaging boxes.

So anyhow... these ladies are for sale here in Oregon at the Portland Saturday Market in my booth (#421) as well as in my Etsy shop online.

Yoga Ladies

Okay, so I have been trying to stock up... and taking lots of pictures...
and heres another installment of my video fun!!! Watch me make em'!




Enjoy - Namaste

and don't forget you can buy these:
in my Etsy shop
and you can contact me with any custom orders (you pick the color and pose)