Everything about my daughter is spicy and wild. She is creating a storm, and her actions and movements express the full seasoned attitudes she stomps with. Running down the dirt paths into the Sunny Brea Forest my son takes off down the trail after her. Taking long running strides without resistance. Like Sonic the hedgehog on a track. The idea of siblingship drives my children bonkers. They want to push, pull, resist but they can’t help but to collide back into one another with love and compassion. Being a child even though full of wonderment and adventure it is also filled with a victim mentality, as the children blame each other every step of the way, sissy pushed me, Malakai left the water bottle not me, etc.
Under the Hunter’s moon I felt emotions stir that I had no control over. I felt so passionate about my feelings, I had to act on them, I couldn’t resist. Now in the new moon, I am wondering if I could have held back those feelings. If I was able to suppress them, hide them, until they dissipated. In the new moon I wonder what I could have done differently to not have acted on my emotion, how to be a new me, how to be a different me. I don’t regret having feelings, but I do regret not having the tools, knowledge, and power to have formulated those feelings in a different way.
All Hallows Eve is among us and we are preparing with trips to the pumpkin patch, making costumes, and preparing sweet treats for friends and family. There is nothing better than being surrounded by your best friends, and Halloween is a great time to indulge in doing fun things with the people you love. We went to the pumpkin patch and got lost in the maze. It was a relief to find the exit (I think we exited where we entered, we were that lost.) Our family and friends took their time choosing the best pumpkins. My husband chose mine, an orange and green pumpkin with lots of warts and a twisted stem. I took the kids to the haunted museum, then we went to see the witches on paddle boards. Bonding and spending time with the kids in this manner was very rewarding to me.
My daughter has been working on her Therian costume. If you didn’t know, Therian’s believe they are a non-human animal species, but are human on a physical level. They may mimic the behaviors of their animal identity. She burnt her hand with the hot glue gun making her costume and I realized even if she thinks she’s old enough (age 11) to do these things on her own, she still needs adult supervision. My son also wanted an animal costume to match his sisters. He got a wolf tail and ears, we’re going to make it out to look like Max from Where the Wild Things Are.
I’ve been sharing with my best friend/ roommate ideas for Halloween dishes. Dishes like corn fritters, pumpkin cake pops, stuffed sweet and savory butternut squash (stuffed with chicken, brussels sprouts, and beets,) pumpkin cheesecake cookies, and honey lavender white chocolate truffles. I’m fascinated with all the good recipes we can find on the internet.
On that note, my roommate cooks the best meals. He makes fish, fresh pizza, and the best tasting quinoa. I am constantly so busy from work and childcare that I can’t always perform as the best cook. But I want to cook like my roommate. I want to dedicate time in the kitchen. I want to enjoy the work. I love being a mom but it’s taxing. To find the balance that offers my children the best life possible and the healthiest options.
Last of all childcare for toddlers; It is so scary to put your children in the hands of someone else. As a substitute teacher I strive to give the kids the best experience possible. The experience I want my children to have while I’m away. Part of me doesn’t want to return to work in the New Year. I’d rather stay home with my children, so I know they are safe. Work on cooking and home life. To become a better writer and artist by dedicating time at home. My mom was a stay-at-home mom till I was four. My son doesn’t have to attend school for another year. Yet, childcare has a lot to offer too. Will I be able to work with him on his education, give him the socializing skills the school offers, and the play structure? Will I be able to keep my calm as a stay-at-home mother, or will it be a burden on my child’s and my relationship? Is there a hybrid version (stay-at-home mom + daycare) that won’t make me feel obligated to be at work? Coming to the end of the year I wonder what I can do to better my child’s lives.
Creature and Natascha sit in a home office in Eureka, CA after a craniosacral massage. Before the interview, Natascha relaxed into her second session with Creature full of powerful energy from the Hunter’s Moon. Natascha wanted to get to know this practice through the practitioner more thoroughly. Together they wrote down Creature’s bio and dove even deeper with a few interview questions. On the end of this post you can read Natascha’s experience during the massage and how she has benefited from Creature’s practice.
Natascha: Hello, welcome to the Little Lost Forest blog. Today we’re going to be interviewing Creature (they/ them) from Eureka, California, practicing massage, spiritual energy work and craniosacral therapy. It’s a beautiful cloudy October afternoon. Hello, Creature. How are you doing today?
Creature: I’m doing really well. I just gave a session not too long ago, and afterwards I feel very clean and clear and centered. Happy to be doing this with you.
Natascha: Thank you. And thank you for the craniosacral massage experience. I really appreciate that as well. What is your mission?
Creature: As far as this work goes, doing body work with people, it really is to offer what has been inherently bubbling up through me over the last decade.I’ve been getting nudges for a while now to offer healing work, and have been hesitant and insecure about it as I’ve been working through my ups and downs. I would say my mission is just to meet people where they’re at. I’m working with this concept of a mirror medicine and really just wanting to help folks get to an empowered state with themselves, with their body, mind, spirit. And I feel like I’m really just here to be a companion on that path for folks. I’m not here to heal anyone, but I’m just here to listen and respond and follow the lead of their own body and nervous system.
Natascha: Okay, thank you. What are your philosophies?
Creature: I would say that I walk a line between spirituality and politics. I don’t feel like they can be separated from me. In my own journey of healing has been very tied in with my identity as a queer and trans person, and also my journey of decolonizing as a white settler person. With those two realities, it’s also this experience of of neurodivergence that the more I embrace, I realize that I’m also embracing my healing gifts, and that being someone that doesn’t operate in dominant culture actually strengthens my role as a healer. It’s directly in opposition to a capitalist, patriarchal, society. And so I see healing and self-care and rest as resistance. And I also see the more that I let go of the expectations of what success looks like in this world, the more I listen to my inner guidance- that I have a lot more to give to other folks. So it’s really for me getting outside of my head and analytical mind and dropping more into trusting my intuition and trusting my energy and my body and my spirit and less of a like. Less of a, um, like I have. I have the answers or the tools to heal you. More like, um, something brought us together, and I’m here to be present and respond.
Natascha: How has plant medicine helped you on your spiritual journey?
Creature: Plant medicine has definitely helped me unlearn and unwind a lot. I was pretty naive and sheltered from a lot of the challenges of the world. Before I started working with plant medicine I was a big believer in college education and feeling like I needed to use that education to have upward mobility in society. But plant medicine really broke that down for me in big ways that that weren’t so much fun all the time. Now that I’ve managed to come through the… Dismembering, falling apart… I realize that there’s a lot more to me than I was aware of.
The plant medicine really helps me drop out of this analytical, judgmental state of mind that I inherited and helps me flow more, helps me dance with my reality. Helps, helps me with neuroplasticity. And was really a guiding force for me. Finding my inherent skills through my lineage that I wasn’t really aware of until I started working with plant medicine.
-Creature
Natascha: On a spiritual path, what does “doing the work” mean to you?
Creature: It means a lot of things. I think primarily it means being in my integrity, which is kind of a constant path of falling in and out of that and finding it again. There’s also lots of layers to that. I also think it’s interesting and funny that we use the word “work,” because I also like to think of it as play. It’s strange to use that word, but also, I think, good to reframe that word and take it back. There’s the work with myself and unlearning, decolonizing, returning to my integrity. Then there’s the play with with others and finding peers who are similarly on that path and learning to discern boundaries and who are healthy people to be around. When am I attracting unhealthy relationships with people? So definitely discernment is a big piece for me.
Natascha: Thank you for that. How does spirituality play a part in your massages?
Creature: I would say spirituality plays a part in most every part of it. Because in order to be present and open enough, I need to to to do the work to wind down and rest and not get all swirled up in the chaos around me. So it requires a certain preparation and lifestyle. I definitely am nowhere close to perfect in that and have my own, you know, struggles like anyone, my own addictions and coping mechanisms. But it requires me to to intentionally drop out of that and take take time to rest before and after. I experience my work as as being a channel of sorts. And so it requires that I have relationship with guides and ancestors, and that I have a practice that is familiar enough to step out of my conscious ego mind and listen and follow. And yeah, it’s, um, about recognizing the more than physical aspects of us our energy body, our emotional or spiritual body, and the many layers involved. It’s also pretty integral with the somatic quality of emotion and trauma and memory and Ancestral generational kinds of of ways that energy gets locked and trapped in our body. I guess beyond the physical layers of muscle and membrane and bones and structure of the body, everything else is entirely spiritual.
Natascha: Thank you. That’s really great to hear. How does self-care play a part?
Creature: It’s definitely essential. I struggle, you know, having regular routines sometimes deciding to commit more to this practice and this way of making a so-called career or identifying as a practitioner, um, was an impetus for me to take self-care more seriously and not put it on the back burner. Um, I spent a lot of time in fight or flight mode, you know, racing around feeling like I need to hustle in this capitalist world. And often self-care it takes a second or third or fourth and so on to all these other things that seem like a priority. This practice is teaching me that it’s actually a guiding force that once I do have a baseline of self-care that speaks to everything else that I do from that state. And and it adds to the quality of, of anything that I have to offer to the world. Whereas without that self-care, I’m more fumbling, agitated and not showing up at in as good a way as I could be.
Natascha: Who introduced you to Craniosacral practices and why did you start practicing?
Creature: Let’s see. I first encountered Craniosacral actually during ayahuasca retreat. I’d never experienced it before, but I was already struggling with, um, dysregulation from the medicine I wasn’t quite prepared for entering so quick and so deep. And there was a practitioner there who gave me some sessions that were really helpful. And since then, it’s been the primary type of therapy that has helped me integrate from my ou-of-body plant medicine trauma. And it’s also been really key to me healing some physical traumas. I have a brain injury, concussion from forest activism. And I’ve recently been able to integrate that more through craniosacral. Out of all the modalities that I’ve experienced, Craniosacral stands out as, it’s hard to compare with with other modalities because there is this there is this spiritual kind of trance state quality to it that. It rides the line between energy work and physical manipulation. I’ve been privileged to receive a couple practitioners really only want one practitioner consistently. It has been pretty inaccessible financially for me. So being able to study it in a beginner way has helped me have a relationship with that [Craniosacral therapy] and myself. So I do some of the work on myself sometimes, and I’ve even learned to, to just sense, the shifting and unwinding in my own body as I do my own meditation and self massage practice
Natascha: What can your clients expect to get out of a session? And what about multiple sessions?
Creature: A lot can happen in one session, but yeah, it’s really the multiple sessions that start to really, really ingrain and train the nervous system to do its own healing, but to keep that new shape and posture.
I would say in one session, it’s kind of like an introduction. It might be the first time ever or first time in a while that the body and nervous system has been reminded that it can adjust the way it’s holding, that it can relax on a deeper level. That it is safe to do so.
-Creature
I think it can be kind of- what’s the word?- It can be surprising to realize how much tension we’re holding and how much dysregulation we experience from the world, especially if we’re used to functioning at a pretty decent level. In my experience, I’ve spent a lot of the last decade very dysregulated, and so even one session can do a lot as far as just a little nudge or reminder that there is another way to be and exist. With multiple sessions, it’s just an opportunity to go deeper and to return to those places that we find the stillness that we’re seeking. It’s certainly not likely that after one session, we won’t just return to those old holding patterns that we’ve likely been familiar with most of our lives. So, each time we return and get that reminder, it’s more likely that we will be able to stay in those new shapes and those new postures and those new vibrations.
Natascha: Yeah. That’s great. What do you think while performing craniosacral therapy?
Creature: Oh, what do I think?
Natascha: What is going through the practitioner’s mind when they’re performing?
Creature: I would say very little. I mean, there’s definitely, um, moments where I’m wondering, like how how the client’s doing. Are they are they feeling this? Sometimes I’m like, “Oh, it’s just working.” You know, little mundane things like, you know, the temperature in the room or how much more time we have. But I would say the majority of the practice, I’m dropping out, out of thinking, and I’m going into a trance state. Um, that’s that’s familiar, you know, from plant medicine or being in ceremony where I fall into a mode with spirit more and I’m feeling the subtleties in the other person. And so my mind is going more into sensation and to feeling the depth of of tension and feeling all the knots and the twists and where those travel and almost just into my hands and not even in my head. So that’s part of why it’s so therapeutic for me as well because it allows me to step outside of that head space that our society teaches us to spend most of our time. It’s actually a huge gift to be able to drop into that state with other people because it does have a mirror effect for me, and it allows me to slow down. And I come out of a session feeling a lot more still and centered and whole then I feel most of the day when I’m not in a session with someone.
Natascha: That really resonates with me. When I got my massage, I’m much more in a state of meditation than I would be in a normal massage. So to think that you’re meditating to while I’m in this like, heightened state of meditation is just such a beautiful combination, like you said, a mirroring effect.
Creature: Yeah. It’s like like co-regulation kind of, you know, it’s that, you know, maybe someone’s coming in just regulated and I have probably some degree of dysregulation from being in the world. But the moment we like tune in there’s this balancing back and forth effect that starts to create this quality that allows for the healing process to unfold.
Natascha: How do you cleanse yourself from the client’s energy after a practice?
Creature: These are great questions. I mean, there’s ways that I do it during the session. The snapping is probably my favorite. Or just flicking the energy off. I can start to feel like pain build up in my arms if I’m, like, holding too much. And so I’ll just release that. I would say even just simple things like washing my hands, going outside and just kind of like opening up to earth energy. Yeah, just brushing myself off. Pretty pretty simple methods. I don’t really have like any sort of complex, wild way that I do that, but it’s definitely important. I definitely don’t like to go rush into something else and like to kind of take a good while to, um, just be in that state and not jump in a car or, you know, go out into, you know, go grocery shopping or something where it’s going to be overstimulating or dysregulating right away because, yeah, it’s important to feel. Let the process of returning to myself before what I might have to like accomplish for the rest of the day. But I would say like, oh, I forgot we had tea. Yeah, like tea or ingesting some sort of, like, gentle plant food. Eating is really good and helpful.
Natascha: Lovely. Where do you see yourself in the future?
Creature: Oh. Where do I see myself in the future? I see a lot of potential paths. I think the one consistent goal for me is to be on land. It’s really important for me to live with nature, live with the trees and the plants and have respite from the hustle and bustle of even a town like Eureka or Arcata. I am pretty sensitive and easily overstimulated, and this work only kind of heightens that, sometimes. It both heightens it and strengthens my capacity to have boundaries from a chaotic, frenetic energy. I really see myself living on land and having some semblance of community.
I really would like to be in alignment, in more solidarity with indigenous peoples and tribes and potentially working with food sovereignty projects and growing food and growing medicine, is really important to me.
-Creature
A lot is up in the air as far as, like how how those goals would work with a body work practice, but I’m staying open. I hope to be in a place where I am just living in reciprocity with with the land and with the people of that place.
Natascha: This is our last question. How has your healing journey positively affected your life?
Creature: My healing journey has positively affected my life just in the way that I can relate to people. I think I was pretty disconnected a lot of my life up into my 20s, and I didn’t really have a sense of purpose or understanding of the miracle of this planet that we live on. And so being able to have a personal living relationship with the earth, with trees and the plants and the animals and the other humans that relate in that way is immensely positive for me. Being able to feel connected to a lineage and like a way of existing before colonization is overall really positive. It’s it can be a challenge at times and has been fairly dark and self destructive for me at times. Just moving forward and continuing to find hope and find guidance has been able to pull me through that. And so now I feel like I have the life experience to to offer to other people, no matter where they are, on that non-linear path. And it just kind of imbues quality into most aspects of life. When I can see through that lens of, of spirit and the more than mundane reality before us it’s very easy to get weighed down by all the pressures of the world and all the toxicity of dominant culture and the ways that it seeps into communities that I’m a part of. When I returned to that simple path of just trusting what’s before me and not getting ahead of myself. Not getting too righteous about where we’re at as humans, then I’m able to, just slow down, sit back and have a more like. Just there’s a simplicity to life through that perspective that is really healing in its own right. I’m grateful for that.
Natascha: Well, thank you, Creature. Thank you for being vulnerable with us, for sharing your gifts, your service and your kindness. I really appreciate your time. I hope you have a wonderful night.
Creature: Yeahhhhhhh.
That was a lot of information for one blog post, but wait I’m not done. I want to share with you my experience with craniosacral massage. I found the results calming, my awareness heightened, and my body more capable of relaxing throughout the day.
My first session was very mesmerizing. I walked into the massage expecting a female’s presence and was happily surprised when my practitioner had the hands of a man. Relaxing on the table I started face forward. Again, I had these expectations that I would start on my back. When we began the massage there was a lot of focus on my head and face, something I had never expected before. As time went on, I noticed that I was becoming very relaxed. So relaxed, I almost fell asleep. Everything was so calming, I felt relaxed in places I didn’t know I had tension.
I think we spent a lot of time on just relaxing my mind and then body. It was like no massage I’ve ever had before. Pressure points were hit but it wasn’t the deep tissue massage I was used to, and I loved it. They flipped me over and massaged my back as well. When I came out of the massage I was beyond grateful for the experience. Even better later when I left the massage, I felt incredibly calmed, like someone had taken their time to feel my body and understand my body rather than mindlessly preform a service. This was like working with body and soul, not overlooking where the pain comes from but giving that pain attention and nurturing it’s needed to process and heal. Maybe that’s why they say they don’t do the healing but offer space for healing, I felt like my body for the first time in a long time could relax.
The second massage was after a stressful week. I was able to relax on the table, back up this time but I was not able to calm my mind. My rushing thoughts were on past and future but hardly focusing on the now. I wonder if this was because the intensive cranalsacral work that we did on the first massage was not the primary focus. This time I felt more energy shift, moving tension and emotion through the body. There was a point when I felt an intense pain in my shoulder I never felt before, not because of their touch but because like some stored trauma was raising to the service. This made me think that there is a lot more going on during Creature’s work than what’s on the surface.
Coming out of the massage I was very relaxed. My body felt great, and my mind was at ease. I felt like I trusted, bonded, and have achieved some kind of mental clarity with my practitioner. I also felt like some emotional wounds I was dealing with earlier on that week was processing. It makes me curious what multiple sessions would look like. What kind of person would I become if my body had time to process pain and emotion so that I didn’t store it in my body. I think I handled problems that arose afterwards with an honest and open hearted. More willing to go through arguments without getting heated. After I was able to relax into my bones. I really appreciate the work that Creature offers, and I look forward to working with them again in the future. I highly recommend trying carinal sacral massage and working with Creature if you want a safe, honest, and receptive light worker. It makes me wonder what I was really getting from the deep massages I’ve received over the years, was it healing my body or was it an instant gratification that wasn’t really allowing my body the time to rest, settle and reset.
Book your appointment today and get a 2 for 1 special: Creature (707) 572-7302
September 28, 2024, Eureka High School, Eureka, CA: After seeing Sage preform next to local Native students at two different Eureka City Schools during California Native American week I was able to sit down with him and Mia, a Eureka High School student, and ask him a few questions about his non-profit and his mission to showcase Native American culture and ceremony to our community. Never before have I seen cultural healing practices in educational setting. I was intrigued by these assemblies going on in Northern California schools and community centers.
Natascha: Hello! Welcome to the Little Lost Forest blog. I am here today with Sage at Eureka High School. He has been performing at schools in Northern California for California Native American/ Indian day.
Natascha: Hello Sage, thanks for sitting with us. How is your day going?
Sage: Manahu, it’s going well. Thank you.
Natascha: I just want to know, what’s your mission?
Sage: So, my mission is to help spread awareness of us as native people still being present. You know, we still have our culture. We still have a living way of sharing the traditions that our people have today, and also that we have a presence, you know, because there are many times when our people are overlooked or often seen as no longer really around. We don’t have a voice. Or there’s even where I’m from there’s this, perspective of like, oh, you guys are you’ve been defeated. You know, you need to sit quietly and, uh, it’s just a mentality that’s, you know, that’s been in people’s minds for a long time. So, my mission is to, you know, show that we’re still here. We still have strength. We still have grace. We’re still all about keeping things going. And, uh, you know, it’s about honoring the legacy of our loved ones that have gone on, the ones that have, uh, that are no longer here, that we can continue the traditions of song and dance and language and things that they taught and keep them going. So that’s what my mission is.
Natascha: And when you say we, you’re talking about your tribe? What tribe are you from?
Sage: So, I’m from the Big Pine Paiute tribe. From my mother, my late mother, Margaret Romero. And we call ourselves the Tovowahammatu Numu. And I’m also of the Taos Pueblo, the Tuah-Tahi people, people of the Red Willow. That’s the people of my late father, Andrew Romero. And we, when I say we, it’s obviously talking about my tribe, my community. But then again, you know, I don’t really have the right to speak for everybody. I’m just generally speaking, in terms of everybody that’s within our community. But, you know, I say it in a respectful way. So that’s who I mean.
Natascha: What about your culture do you feel has been lost?
Sage: Quite a few things have been lost. Where we come from, our people experience the Owens Valley Indian Wars, which was in 1862. And so, you know, fairly recent if you think about the history of the United States. And within that, our people were removed from our valley. And it wasn’t until the early 1900s, 1912, 1914, that our people started coming back because of the failure of the fort systems. They weren’t able to, you know, retain or keep our people there in a healthy manner or also just functional manner because it was so terrible back then. But back then they started putting our people back in the valley. Our people started moving back. And within that, of course, there was a loss of a lot of, you know, family members that didn’t survive the movement, the basically trail of tears of our Paiute people during that time.
Sage: And so, we lost a lot of connection to language, dances, songs, stories, things that had been passed down because obviously people that held those didn’t survive those times. So, they weren’t able to carry it on. And then with the introduction of Colonization efforts and, you know, being indoctrinated into different religions of people from different parts of the world. You know, it made our people forget about who we were and start adopting the beliefs of others because they lost a lot of the connection of the ancestors from that time. And so, you know, they started learning like Christianity and different teachings from other people.
Sage: And so, within that, there was also the effort of eliminating the Indian identity and making sure we all become a part of the general population, you know, the melting pot of America. And so, the idea was to eliminate language, eliminate culture, eliminate things that they do and just make them citizens of the United States. Work job, pay bills, retire, and that’s it. You know, you’re done. Uh, so within that, we lost a lot of culture, and now our people are really working to revitalize a lot of those things. There’s a big revitalization of language, right now. Of course, with dance and song, you see a lot of these things coming back. More people are practicing, more people are learning. Young, young ones are starting to learn earlier. And, uh, you know, that’s a big part of our culture. And we still got it going on today. But we did lose a lot in those times.
Natascha: And when you refer to the medicine, what are you referring to?
Sage: So, when I’m doing my presentations, I often talk about medicine. And as i explained to the children, it’s not about pills or a drink you have to take. It’s just the medicine to us is a spirit and the emotion. Your body, what’s around you, how you portray yourself, how you carry yourself, how you treat others. That’s a medicine. How you make people feel. And so, when you’re doing something like me sharing the hoop dance, you know, it’s, uh, affecting people differently that watch it, you know, some people will see it and they’ll see take something out. And I believe that, that’s a medicine. That feeling that I’m giving them. And so, within myself, I have to make sure I’m living in a good way. I don’t partake of any type of drugs or alcohol. Things like that, substances. Because I know that when I’m out there dancing, I want to make sure every message that’s going through my body, through the hoops is received in a good way. You know, because when you mix just like any prescription drug, you mix them wrong. You can make people sick, right? So, there’s that whole aspect of the spirit.
Sage: Same idea.
Sage: You want to make sure you’re in a good place when you’re sharing these type of things. Because that medicine, the dance, the songs, everything that helps people and that’s what it is to us.
Natascha: Well, thank you for sharing the medicine with our community.
Speaker1: Thank you.
Natascha: Do you feel like the community as a whole can and should participate in a Native American cultural celebration?
Sage: Uh. It depends. It really is dependent upon what community you’re around, because there are some ceremonies that our people keep private that we still have. And oftentimes our people will share that, this is just for our community, this is for our people. And, you know, it’s just a way of having respect given people, our people and space and time to have that just for our people. But like with the gatherings like tonight or like a powwow or a social gathering, a big time, which often happens here, that’s everybody’s welcome to come to those. So that’s always a good thing. And I think it’s a good spirit, you know, because it shows people what we do. You hear the stories, you hear the protocol. You learn how to how to act when you’re there. And oftentimes, you know, we ask people when you come to these gatherings, so make sure you’re not under any type of influence. You’re not drunk, you’re not high or anything like that. Come with a clear mind when you’re there so you can be present. And, you know, as I talked about before, medicine, how it’s important. That’s also so you can receive that good medicine and balance.
Sage: So, I think it’s good for people to come and attend to our public ones like tonight and take part and learn, you know, because as my mission is to, you know, spread awareness. If nobody’s coming, they’re not going to, you know- it’s not going to- my awareness efforts aren’t going to spread because people aren’t hearing the stories. But if people from the community non-natives are coming, they’ll hear the stories. They’ll see the perspective; they’ll experience it hands on in a sense. You know, being right there and hearing it and seeing things in person is so much more powerful than, you know, watching YouTube videos or TikToks and things like that. There’s more, you know, it has more impact upon your soul when you’re there, present with it. So that’s always good to have. So yeah, I’d encourage people to come to public, but remember the protocols and make sure you. Ask first if it’s something that the public can come to, or if it’s just for the tribe.
Natascha: Thank you. Can you tell us the story on love?
Sage: So, there’s many stories of love within our tribal peoples, and really depends on where you’re at and what time of the season it is and stuff like that. But the one I’ve been telling at the presentations, because I play the Native flute, has been a story of courtship about the efforts someone would take if they had become interested in somebody. And this comes from the Plains people.
Sage: And so, this story talks about an individual falling in love with another. And so, when that time comes and they’re of age, you know, the proper age, they’re kind of grown a little bit. And they’re given permission by their family that they could start doing these types of things. Perhaps they had gone through their puberty ceremonies, adolescent ceremonies, because that’s something you have as native people, so they’re seen as an adult.
Sage: All right. So, if you become interested in somebody you would often start learning the protocols of your family. So, one of those protocols is a flute song for those people from the plains. And the flute song would have been passed down for generations. So, their family has a song that’s specific to them. And they would go, and they would learn that song. And then once they knew it, they took time and devoted themselves to that practice. They would take the time to go to that person that they were interested in, go to their lodge, which was not just the person, but also their family, and they would sit outside it at night after the sun had gone down. And then they would begin playing that one song, and they’d play that song all through the night until, you know, the first light started coming.
Sage: And then they would take the time to go get a little rest themselves, because you’re not supposed to sleep all day just because you’re trying to be romantic. And so, they would go and rest up, and they would come back the next night, and they would do that again all through the night. And then after that they would come back again. Third night. Then they’d come back again a fourth night. So, they would do this for four nights in a row. And then after the fourth night was the time to show it out, because as they were doing that, the person being played for in the lodge, that they’d have an idea, you know, someone was interested in them, so they know, but they were never allowed to look out and see who was playing for them.
Sage: So, it was a little bit of a mystery, per se. And so, after that fourth night, the individual that was interested played the flute would go in front of everybody in the village in the middle of everybody, and they would start playing that same song over and over again in the middle of the day. And this would, you know, make people say, oh, there’s that song that was played at that lodge over there. Somebody go get that individual that was living there. Someone go find them and bring them back so they could see who’s been playing for them. And so, they would do that and that person would come back to the village and they could finally see who was playing the flute. And so, if they were interested, you know, and they accepted that courtship, all they had to do was go up to that person and take their hand in front of everybody in the front of the village, and then everybody would bear witness and say, okay, these two are now together. Let’s let them build a relationship. Let’s let them get to know each other. Nobody else tried to come and disrupt that. Let’s respect that space so that. That’s what that would be known.
Sage: And from there, that couple would begin, you know, their life, whatever their family would be, they would start creating that. And there was also the turn of maybe they weren’t interested. And if that would happen, they would simply just have to turn around and walk away. And that person in the middle with the flute would continue playing and just wait and wait and wait and maybe someone will come and tap him on the shoulder and say, it’s okay, how come you know that? Kind of give them the give them the little assurance that they’ll be all right. You know, and it’s time to stop.
Sage: So, there’s that story there.
Sage: And then they would just continue on. And I was accepted. You know, it wasn’t something that you wouldn’t try to go and protest and say, how dare you not accept my flute song? You know, you couldn’t do that. You just said accept it because it wasn’t your time. And so that’s how it was done. And that’s a story that’s passed down. And that’s the way that a lot of families were created back in the day, was using such a technique of courtship.
Speaker1: Out of curiosity. Did you ever play the flute for four days?
Speaker3: I’ve tried, yes, I’ve tried and failed, unfortunately.
Natascha: It’s awfully romantic.
Sage: Sometimes, too romantic for this day and age. [Both laughing] Yeah.
Natascha: How do you think sharing culture can unite and make our communities stronger?
Sage: As I said before, it’s about raising awareness and getting an understanding of each other. Because if you’re creating barriers, if you’re pushing people away, you don’t want to have them around. You’re never going to get a sense of connection. You’re never going to be able to form any type of relationship, whether it’s a big one or a small one or whatever. So, to be able to have that connection of seeing each other and hearing each other’s stories and feeling things on a human level, you know, that’s important because that’s what is so important about multicultural gatherings, people coming together and sharing whatever it may be. It gives you an understanding of where other people come from.
Sage: It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to go and, you know, um, be an appropriator go appropriate to the culture. You know, it’s not that. It’s just your understanding of what they’re doing because, you know, everybody’s life journey is different, and it’s beautiful to see all these cultures and how they became the way they are. Even within tribes, native tribes, different languages, different songs, different types of dances. But still, you know, we all respect that. We give each other space and time and understand that, oh, this is how you do it. Oh, this is how we do it. But it’s not like an argument. It’s not like, oh, we’re doing it better and we’re doing it right. No, it’s just that, oh, this is our people’s way. This is your way. That’s good, I understand that. So, I’ll give you space when I need to. You know, that’s that understanding. And I think that’s really important to have in the world today some, some connections so that people can experience each other and just see where they’re coming from. I think it’s beautiful when you can use art and culture as a way to connect to that.
Natascha: Oh, I totally agree. I’m talking about art and culture. How does art play a part in your ceremony?
I think there is a teaching of an elder that said that to us, art is our ceremony. It’s not necessarily art. It is just a ceremony. What it is, you know, our dances and our songs. You could label it as art, right? But to us, to do this dance in itself is a ceremony. There’s no distinction, there’s no separation.
Sage Romero
Sage: It’s just one thing to us. And so, to us, you know, it has to be there where we can share these things together. And, well, like you look at the sand paintings of the Diné people, how they paint with sand and my people with our baskets, how we utilize them. Again, people can see that as arts and crafts, right? But to us, there’s always a deeper meaning to these things. And there’s just it just doesn’t really make sense to me as a native person to separate them because they’re so intertwined and connected. And I think it’s just it’s pretty much just one thing to us.
Natascha: Awesome. Is there anything else you would like to add or share on culture and community to our readers?
Speaker3: I would just say continue learning about others in a good way. You know, appropriate way. Don’t be appropriator or don’t be going and stealing other people’s culture. You know, always ask permission and find out what’s proper for you to do and what’s something you can learn. And you can go and develop yourself. Make sure there’s communication. You know that’s important. But as for other things, I think it’s just important to be a part and share it. Like these gatherings like this, community gatherings, experiencing things, you know, be in the moment. That’s the important part. Be there, be there, be present. Use your eyes to watch. Use your skin to feel the wind around you, the air, the music. You know, how the drum can impact the air around you and all the things that are happening and just be there. That’s what I would say is take it in as much as it is. Take it for what it is. You know, make that effort to be a part of something and go with an open mind and a good mind and good heart. That’s all I can say about that.
Natascha: Well, thank you so much, Sage, for sharing all this awesome wisdom and stories with me.
Sage: All right. Thank you.
Sage Andrew Romero is a member of the Tovowahamatu Numu (Big Pine Paiute) and Tuah-Tahi (Taos Pueblo) Tribes. He is an accomplished Hoop Dancer/ Cultural Presenter/ Director/ Animation Artist/ Singer/ Keynote Speaker and has traveled internationally sharing the Culture of his people through song, story, dance and art. He is the founder and Director of the AkaMya Culture Groups, a Native American owned and operated 501(C)(3) Nonprofit Organization based in Tovowahamatu, Payahu Nadü (Big Pine, California).
I came to Cannifest to support my local cannabis scene, and it didn’t disappoint. Sponsored by SAFFY THC, the first Black and Jamaican-owned cannabis farm in Humboldt County that offers the community sun-grown, greenhouse-controlled dank light dep flower that can be found at Zen Humboldt and Proper Wellness. What I discovered went beyond my favorite cannabis community, local glass artists, and funky, groovy music—what truly captivated me was the underground street art culture.
Cannabis businesses, dispensaries, and farms from all over California gathered to showcase their products. Local dispensaries like Arcata Fire, Proper Wellness, Phenotopia (Santa Rosa), Zen Humboldt, Moca + The Ganjery, and Heritage (Ukiah) were all in attendance, showing the diversity and dedication of California’s cannabis industry. Many out-of-towners were surprised to see street artists painting directly on the city walls. These murals stay up until Cannifest rolls around the following year, when they are painted over, and the cycle starts again.
“It’s too bad,” Ember from Soulshine Glass remarked to me. “I really liked some of the previous art.” “Well, it’s kind of like your glass art,” I said, perhaps a bit dimly. “It doesn’t last forever.” “Well, it can,” she replied. That’s when I realized I’ve been seriously mistreating my own glass collection.
The impermanence of street art is something I find absolutely beautiful. Artists create for themselves—to express a fleeting moment, connect with their community, push boundaries, and make bold statements. Knowing their work will eventually be covered challenges them to create again and again, evolving with every piece. It’s a cycle of relentless creativity. Maybe that’s why graffiti culture pulls at my heartstrings so strongly.
This year at Cannifest, I made it a point to chat with some of the street artists to hear what they had to say about their work and the impact of this ephemeral art form.
Willow + Ember from Soulshine ArtWinning Banger
And of course, the music was on fire! The main stage lineup featured incredible performances from Lettuce, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Rainbow Girls, Mendo Dope, Oteil & Friends, the Nth Power, Junior Toots, the Magnificent Sanctuary Band, and a Wiyot Tribe Blessing to honor the event. Over at the Unity Stage, Deep Groove Society, Storytime Crew, Pressure Anya, One Wise Sound, Redwood Roots, and Marjo Lak kept the energy flowing.
Note from Conversations with Participants Indoor growers will tell you they’re too good for trimming—“Trimming sucks!” Meanwhile, outdoor homegrown farmers will tell you how much joy they get from trimming fat, crystal-coated nugs—“Oh yeah, I love trimming!”
Take the poll: Where do you stand on trimming?
Natascha: So. What’s your tag name?
Artist1: Eesh.
Natascha: Eesh. Can you tell me some advice about tagging to unexperienced artists?
Artist1: Get in where you fit in.
Natascha: All right. Thank you very much. I love the colors that you use. Is there anything that inspires this piece that you did today?
Artist1:Artwork and vandalism.
Natascha: Hi. I’m here with a tag artist. What was your tag name?
Artist2: Oh, I don’t have a tag name. My name is Matthew Olivieri, though.
Natascha: Okay. Thank you, thank you. Matthew. Um, this is a very distinct cube.
Natascha: What kind of cube is this?
Artist2: Well, um. That’s a different question. Um, yeah, it’s.
Natascha: Revert back to the original question.
Artist2: The original question? Um, yeah. The shape of the cube is an isometric cube.
Natascha: Yes. Thank you. And where did you learn about isometric? And, like, what inspired the isometric cube?
Artist2: Well, I actually teach a lot of, uh, I teach art at the juvenile detention facility here in town. Yeah, so I teach how to do 2D or. I’m sorry. Two. Two point perspective and three point perspective and things like that. So I’ve been working with kind of geometric stuff like this for a little while. Um, but in an educator capacity. But I kind of take my, my work home with me a little bit by drawing things like this for myself, you know? So this is actually a logo of sorts. Um, a shout out of sorts for the business that I’m starting with my cousin.
Natascha: Oh, I see it. So, so, um, and then we do.
Artist2: He does, uh, augmented reality on top of my artwork.
Natascha: Wow.
Artist2: So if you scan this QR code, you can actually activate activate the the augmented reality on your phone.
Natascha: Sweet. I’ll tag it in the blog. I really appreciate your time and your art and what you do for the community. That’s awesome. Thank you.
Artist2: Thank you.
Natascha: Hi. What’s your tag name?
Artist3: Uh, Lauren Wheeler. Oh, tag. Uh, I’m. For what? For this. Okay. Yeah. Or. Yeah. Uh, 21 bangers over Instagram.
Artist3: What does this piece mean to you- Politically.
Artist3: Politically?
Natascha: Yeah.
Artist3: Uh, I’m not into politics, so it doesn’t have anything to do.
Natascha: So is it anti-political?
Artist3: It ain’t. Anti anything. It’s it’s it’s pro thinking.
Natascha: Um, you don’t feel like there’s revolutions going on all the time when people protest and speak up?
Artist3: Well, I feel like revolutions just puts you right back into the same spot. It’s an evolution that has to happen.
Natascha: Do you think that happens within, or do you think that happens on a governmental level, on a whole country level.
Artist3: That happens within because it’s thought that put us into these spots. It’s thought that even is going on right now. Everything is only a thought and people’s been killed to think this thought for many years. And then everybody thinks the same thought about the revolt or what’s going on with the government or the money or all this thing. Right? So to evolve, you got to think drastically different and not in those terms.
Natascha: If people are looking for healing, what kind of community do you recommend to find healing in.
Artist3: The same vibration.
Natascha: All right. Thank you very much.
Artist3: Yeah. Thank you.
“The people shouldn’t confirm around the community, the community should confirm around the people.
Lauren Wheeler
Natascha: Hi. What’s your tag name?
Artist4: Uh, my name is Zevo. Z-E-V-O.
Natascha: All right. Zevo, I was wondering, what part of your culture has influenced your tag piece today?
Artist4: Uh, so I’m Chicano, and the Chicano handstyle really influenced me. The old English letters and stuff like that. It’s a big part of my culture.
Natascha: All right. It’s super dope. And where are you from?
Artist4: I’m from Santa Barbara. Socal.
Natascha: Okay. All right. Thank you so much.
Natascha: Hey, what’s your tag name?
Artist5: My tag name is Golden Flower underscore CA.
Natascha: This is a really awesome piece. What is the hand in the in the snake represent to you?
Artist5: To me it represents a connectedness with the water as well. And, yeah, the symbols of just, something humanistic or creature like. Yeah.
Natascha: What about SEON? What does that represent?
Artist5: So this is a collaboration with my friend from Chile. And so this is supposed to be some type of compass. And that is literally the country of Chile in a chili like pepper form.
Natascha: I love it. That totally brings the two pieces together. Thanks for the explanation.
Natascha: Hi Christopher, I love this piece that I’m looking at. Can you tell me a little bit about your style?
Artist 6: Um, yeah. Just try to keep it sharp and clean and vicious looking. And we’re doing, we’re doing a comic book called the Max. Kind of like a tribute to it and putting our own graffiti twist to it.
Natascha: Okay. Thank you so much. It looks sick.
Natascha: Hi, Erica. This is a really beautiful, feminine piece that you put up here at CanniFest. Can you tell me a little bit about the story behind this piece?
Artist7: Well, quick blurb. We have our queen bee and her best buds, and it’s- I’ve been messing around with doing figurative work with creature heads, alluding to a more feral side of things that we often don’t acknowledge and probably should acknowledge more.
Natascha: All right, I see that absolutely.
Artist7: -Know your monsters. I like to paint a lot of the animals that are often given a bad rep and, you know, misunderstood monsters and bees are definitely one of them. So we gave a feminine woman with a bee head and her beast buds.
Natascha: Awesome. Thank you for keeping it fresh, I love it.
Sunday, August 18th, 2024 2:35pm, Honeydew, California, Fairwind: Natascha spent the weekend at Fairwind to participate in an Ayahuasca ceremony. Afterwards she interviewed practitioners Chonon and Adelina. From her experience this plant medicine opens the third eye, allowing in information and reflection on communal living, healthy life choices, clearing chakras, and giving thanks to ones ancestors and those who have passed. You can learn more about their projects by visiting shipibocollectiveshop.com and shamanic-dream.com. The spread of this information and donations toward their tribe help keep their traditions alive.
“Plant medicine enables me to confront my triggers rather than suppressing them. It supports me in processing my trauma rather than overlooking it.”
-Natascha
Natascha: Thank you, everyone, for tuning in to the Little Lost Forest blog. Today I’m going to be interviewing Adelina and Chonon from the Shipibo tribe of the Amazon in Peru. Hello, Adelina and Chonon. Thank you for taking this time for this interview. Thank you, Albert, for translating this conversation from English to Spanish. How have your travels been so far? Where have you stopped?
Albert: ¿Cómo han sido tus viajes y a dónde has ido?.
Adelina: Oh thank you. Mhm. En mi viaje ha ido todo bien. Hemos venido acá, también tenemos un amigo. Gracias a Alberto también. Estamos acá en Arcata y después de acá vamos a ir a Utah también visitar una Amiga.
Albert: So yeah she says the travels have been great right now in Arcata California. Honeydew. Um after this she’s going to be going to Utah. And that’s where she was before this as well. They have community there and friends.
Natascha: Wonderful, thank you. What is your mission?
Albert: ¿Cuál es tu misión?
Adelina: Mi misiós es esta, ¿No? Como vuelvo a decir que he trabajado con 25 mujeres de mi comunidad y también buscar el mercado donde vender para poder ayudar a mi comunidad.
Chonon: Claro, mediante la medicina estar… Siempre conectar con la gente y una de las aazones por las que hacemos todo esto es simplemente por el amor tenemos al ser humano. Un gran amor y un gran respeto.
Albert: Gracias. So she says that her mission is well back in Pucallpa. She works with 25 other women in her community, and one of her missions is to network. And they do this all out of love. And, um, she wants to help support the community. And so she’s looking for different outlets and places to show her art and exhibit the beautiful artwork that they do make.
Natascha: Thank you. When working with plant medicine, is it grown on a farm or found in the jungle?
Chonon: Yo puedo responder esa pregunta. La medicina que nosotros hacemos, tú sabes la razón, ¿Verdad? Ahora en esta globalización de la Ayahuasca, se ha tomado especialmente en la comunidad donde nosotros vivimos a que no haya, es muy dificil de encontrar en su estado natural. Como Los antiguos, ¿Verdad? Entonces, lo que nosotros hacemos es trabajar con los tios, con la familia, ¿Verdad? Tenemos hectáreas para sembrar la medicina, la chacruna, la ayahuasca… Entonces, mediante eso, para no poder abusar de lo que está trayendo a la salud, es mejor reforestar. Asi es como nosotros hacemos la medicina.
Albert: Gracias, Chonon. So in their community, with the globalization of ayahuasca and a lot of the plants that they use, um, these plants are very rare to find in the wild. And so in order to keep them safe in the jungle, they try to keep the oldest vines alive, the plants alive and in properties of their, uh family members, they try to plant as much as they can in order to keep what’s natural alive and and to to save that.
Natascha: Thank you. How is it processed?
Albert: ¿Cuál es el proceso de hacer la medicina?
Adelina: ¿Cómo hacemos la medicina? Bueno, para hacer la medicina, nos toma alrededor de tres a cinco dias, dependiendo cuanto vamos a hacer. Nosotros lo hacemos en la selva. Siempre.
Albert: Vamos a hacer un bloqueado para… un poquito. And she says it takes about 3 to 5 days to make the medicine, depending on how much they’re gonna make. And they make it up in the jungle.
Chonon: Lo que hacemos es con ayahuasca y chacruna, esas dos únicas plantas.
Albert: So they have two ingredients. It’s ayahuasca and chacruna which uh ayahuasca is a vine. Capoeira banisters and the chacruna leaf in combination.
Chonon: Nosotros lo que hacemos primero es pues, hacemos un proceso de machacar la liana y después vamos en capas poniendo la ayahuasca… Es una olla muy grande, así. Todo eso, tal vez ponemos unos sesenta litros de agua, más o menos, todo eso se reduce a tres litros.
Albert: Okay, so they start by, um, smashing up the vine. The chacruna or the ayahuasca vine. Sorry. And, um, then they have a really large pot that they put it all in, and they put it in layers and they layer the ayahuasca and the chacruna, and then they put about 100l of water into the pot, and they cook it down until it turns into about just three liters of the medicine. So 100 will turn into like three after cooking it for 3 to 5 days.
Natascha: Well, thank you for sharing. How does art play a role in your ceremony?
Chonon: ¿Cómo hace…?
Adelina: Yeah.
Chonon: Yo voy a responder eso también.
Albert: Okay, perfecto.
Chonon: El arte es muy importante. Especialmente este arte, ¿No? Este arte viene de la ayahuasca.
Albert: She says the art is really important especially with what they have here. She said this comes from the ayahuasca.
Chonon: Entonces todo esto es la inspiracion de las vibraciones de los ícaros, de las canciones que vienen de las visiones.
Albert: So this is all inspired by the visions that come through the, um, the icaros that come through the visions of ayahuasca. When received-
Chonon: Y todo esto tiene un significado, no es un diseño que está hecho por hacer, especialmente ¿Qué significado tiene? La mayoría es a sanación, protección, traernos sabiduría de los ancestros.
Albert: She said that every design on these patterns is not just set there for looks. Every single design and shape has a meaning, um, healing, protection, um, gifts from their ancestors.
Chonon: Sí, entonces, obviamente nosotros al llevarlo a la ceremonia, es una forma de honor, de respeto hacia todos los grandes espiritus que cuidan, nos guían y nos llevan a la dirección de la medicina.
Albert: So this is all in honor of, um, their ancestors and their guides that help guide them through these ceremonies. Mhm.
Natascha: Thank you. How has the medicine strengthened the relationship between you and your daughter.
Albert: Está preguntando cómo se ayudan la medicina a poder de usted y su hija y cómo ayuda a crecer su relacion.
Adelina: Nuestros ancestros nos enseñaron también. Entonces nosotros también. Yo aprendí de mis abuelos, mis abuelos, tías, tíos. Entonces ahora a mi hija yo le he transmitido y le estoy enseñando cómo trabajar con la medicina.
Albert: So these practices have been passed down from generation to generation. Um, Adelina was taught by her grandparents and her uncles and aunts and in lieu she is also teaching her family. She also has sons and other daughters back at Pucallpa. We’re really happy to have Chanon here with her. And, um, that is just part of their culture and how they how they grow together. Mhm.
Natascha: How are you received as medicine woman in your community?
Albert: ¿Cómo eres recibida en tu comunidad como una mujer de la medicina?
Adelina: Sí, nosotros en la comunidad, hombres y mujeres casi somos… Toda comunidad hacemos medicina en nuestra comunidad.
Albert: Mhm.
Adelina: Mhm.
Albert: ¿Y Cómo eres recibida en la comunidad?
Adelina: Nos tratan bien, porque la medicina para nosotros es muy sagrado y cuando nos enfermamos, con eso nosotros sanamos. Es una sanacion muy buena. Es medicina muy fuerte, es nuestra farmacia en nuestra comunidad.
Albert: Qué bueno.
Albert: She says we’re kind of like a pharmacy in the community. They’re very well received. Um, you know, her and the whole community make a lot of medicine. And, um, when people get sick in the community, you know, the ayahuasca and the medicines that they make alongside that really help cure a lot of sickness in the community. So jokingly looked at as a pharmacy. Yeah.
Adelina: Haha.
Natascha: What is the role of the assistants? How do they enhance the experience.
Albert: The assistance of-
Natascha: During ceremony
Albert: ¿Qué es el trabajo de la existencia en ceremonia y cómo se ayuda a la experiencia?
Chonon: Bueno, el asistente forma una vital parte de la ceremonia también, especialmente cuando hay grupos mayores de 10 personas en el circulo. ¿Por qué? Porque si es menos está bien, el chamán se puede hacer cargo de todos. Pero cuando no está a su alcance de poder ver tal vez más de 20 personas digamos un ejemplo, forma un poquito de dificultad, especialmente, y eso es asi siempre, no simplemente cuando venimos acá vamos a tener un asistente. En la comunidad, en la selva con toda familia siempre hay alguien toma una dosis muy pequeña para poder cuidar de todos. Siempre va a ser importante.
Albert: So she says.
Albert: Usually when sitting down with anything less than ten people, they really don’t need assistance in any way that they can take care of everybody in that circle. But usually like ten or more people, um, they’ll have somebody that maybe drinks a little bit less in order to watch over people, because when there’s like 20 people in a sitting, you know, it’s a little bit harder for the facilitator who is sitting in the very back to have a watchful eye over everybody. So therefore there’s somebody who takes a little bit less that is there to take care of other people that are in need of assistance, thus enhancing the experience.
Natascha: How does ayahuasca represent your culture?
Albert: ¿Cómo representa el ayahuasca tu cultura?
Chonon: Oh, el ayahuasca. Bueno, como dicen los abuelos, del ayahuasca venimos nosotros.
Albert: She says, just like their grandparents say, from the ayahuasca is from which where they came.
Chonon: Entonces nosotros formamos parte, nosotros somos los hijos de la ayahuasca, dicen los abuelos. Por eso dicen que nosotros debemos practicar. No podemos hacer desaparecer este conocimiento. De la ayahuasca viene el idioma, de la ayahuasca viene el arte, de la ayahuasca viene el conocimiento de la medicinas. Abre todas las puertas hacia el conocimiento. Es la escuela de la vida.
Albert: Wow.
Albert: So ayahuasca. Gracias. Ayahuasca to them is extremely huge. It is, um, everything from which where they came. They said that it brings them their language, their songs, their culture, their art, their visions, their healing. And, it’s told by their grandparents that they need to practice with this medicine because without it they are not. You know, it is everything for them.
Natascha: That’s a very beautiful answer. Thank you. What are some struggles in your community that you would like to overcome?
Albert: ¿Cuáles son los problemas de tu comunidad que te gustaría solucionar?
Adelina: Nuestro problema ahora en las nuevas generaciones, nuestros hijos ya no quieren… El problema más grande es que ya no quieren usar nuestra vestimenta, ya no quieren hablar nuestro idioma y algunos ya no quieren practicar la medicina. Entonces, ese es el problema más grande de la comunidad ahorita y eso nosotros queremos que no se acabe la cultura, el arte y esa es mi preocupacion. Yo quiero ayudarlo. También yo quiero hacer como una pequeña escuela también para ensenarlos a ellos también.
Albert: So she says, one of the problems in her community right now that she is really working on is that the new generations and the, the younger people in their community are starting to lose sight of the practice. They don’t find as much interest in wearing the traditional garbs the garments making the art. Um, a lot of people are speaking less of their traditional language or the Shipibo language. Adelina wants to make a school to teach people to continue these traditions, to teach them the language so that they don’t lose these special traditions.
Albert: Mhm.
Natascha: Can you share with us a prayer for the earth in your native tongue?
Albert: ¿Puedes compartir un rezo para el mundo en tu idioma nativo?
Albert: Gracias.
Adelina:
Albert: That’s right. Yeah Thank you.
Natascha: If you would like to translate.
Albert: Chonon, is there any of that that you would like to translate?
Chonon: Que nos guía, que nos dé la fuerza para seguir caminando.
Albert: That they guide us and they give us the strength to continue walking this earth.
Chonon: Para poder compartir siempre la alegría, los buenos pensamientos.
Albert: To continue to share happiness and good thoughts.
Chonon: Que por favor, la gente que tiene estos malos pensamientos, guíalos hacia los buenos sentimientos.
Albert: And to please help the people with bad thoughts, to guide them into better thoughts and good states of mind.
Chonon: Así para que no haya más sufrimiento en este planeta.
Albert: To no longer have suffering on the planet.
Chonon: Por favor, guíanos una vez mas.
Albert: Again, please guide us.
Chonon: Y muchas gracias a tí, gran creador por siempre…
Albert: And thank you so much. Great creator for always-
Chonon: acompañarnos, guiarnos.
Albert: -For always accompanying us and guiding us.
Chonon: Gracias.
Albert: Thank you.
Chonon: Gracias. Gracias.
Natascha: All right. This is our last question. What is tribe life like? And what does it mean to you?
Albert: Esta es la última pregunta. ¿Cómo es el vida en una tribu? Y ¿Qué es para ustedes?
Chonon: ¿Cómo es más o menos?
Albert: ¿Cómo es la vida…?
Adelina: O cómo viven.
Speaker3: Cómo viven, sí.
Albert: Cómo viven.
Adelina: En.
Adelina: la comunidad más que todo.
Chonon: Bueno, en la comunidad… Forma dos partes, especialmente si hablamos del curanderismo, de las prácticas, es una práctica muy común. Todo Shipiru aabe qué es un curandero y tiene mucho respeto a quien practica la medicina y saben quienes somos. Y también está la comunidad que no practica la medicina. Entonces todo es un balance, todos vivimos en armonía y asi es como decimos. Especialmente cuando dicen los abuelos, en nuestra comunidad, nosotros siempre hay que compartir con nuestras abuelas… Cuando viene alguien, visita… Nosotros con mucha alegria, mucho amor. Entonces nuestra comunidad siempre trata de vivir en armonía.
Albert: Déjenme atravesar un poquito para no atravesarme. She’s saying so it’s like there’s like two parts and it’s a balance because there’s the curanderos in the community, which they are a part of the medicine and there’s people that don’t practice the medicine. And it’s really important that when somebody comes into the community that they receive them with joy and love and they bring them into the community and embrace them. And you know, everybody in the community knows that like that. The people that don’t practice medicine know the people who do practice medicine and really, um, rely on that as well. Um, so yeah, she’s saying it’s a balance.
Albert: Mhm. Mhm.
Chonon: Entonces, eso es lo que nos enseña la ayahuasca. Porque somos la ayahuasca. La ayahuasca nos enseña a tener balance en la vida. Entonces por eso en la comunidad los abuelos siempre dicen “hay que tener un balance, estar en siempre en neutro”, no podemos tampoco como explotar y tampoco en este otro, siempre en el medio.
Albert: Wow.
Albert: So she said it all comes back to the ayahuasca and what is taught by their grandparents and the people that came before them, the generations before them, is that they must remain balanced. They cannot go too far in either direction. You know, be too loud in medicine or be too quiet in the community. And so, yeah, it’s really important in the ayahuasca helps them bring balance to the community in those ways.
Natascha: Well, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your service. Thank you for coming. I appreciate you guys.
Albert: Iraqshi.
Adelina: Iraqshi. Iraqshi. Gracias. Thank you.
Fairwind is a remote mountain retreat center, nestled in the Mattole Valley on a knoll looking out across at the King’s Range Wilderness. It has had the honor of hosting several cultural healers from different countries. Its intention is to respect all traditions and spiritual paths. This combined with the spirit of the land that has long fostered healing. The Temple is built with sacred geometry, using the trees from the location . There is also a seven circuit Labyrinth which allows visitors to engage in creating sacred space and share prayers for the benefit of all.
Little Lost Forest presents the Tea Lounge at Eclectic Farms, providing a donation-based tea and cuddle puddle space.
Eclectic Farms is a Northern California event located in the mountains of Titlow Hill, a multi-generation oasis for underground music events. The lively EDM scene hosts multiple stages and genres, artists, and play areas for performers, carnies, and lovers of nightlife. Located an hour from Cal Poly Humboldt, people aged 18-99 from all over the world and different walks of life gather to dance under the musical umbrella. Supporting local talent, Eclectic Farms is a community-made event that showcases local DJs, musicians, painters, interactive art pieces, paracord trampolines, farm living, and is placed in the heart of the Redwoods. Lasers, concert visuals, premium sound, pole dancing, aerial performers, fire dancers, and go-go dancers all enhance the main stage, while two garage stages played live music and more trap-style EDM. This year, the Mush Love Crew hosted a second stage lit with black lights, neon decor, and bodypaint with a pop-rock dance vibe. If you dare enter the tea lounge, Little Lost Forest hosts a relaxing space in a bell tent covered in local art, cushy pillows, and delectable tea.
The past three events have been out of this world. You might be familiar with some of the talent coming through Eclectic Farms. DJ and live artist Joe Mallory opened the first party in June with psychedelic ambient music. June’s headliner was Rammun, a couple from Willits who played spiritual funk rap. While Narion worked the mixing board, Luna rapped conscious, mind-expanding lyrics. Maggie fire-hooped with Humboldt Circus, and her performance was both mesmerizing and inspiring. Something about the relationship between the dancer and the fire creates a trance-like ambiance on the dance floor. LoCo Flow Fusion is a central Humboldt-based fire troupe. Bartending and performing is the incredible Boofy the Clown. Mushroom cocoa and niche tea blends offered by Ana’s Herbals. Deep, intercate tarot readings channeled by TOAD and art and firespinning by local artist @psychicmisfit.
When asking Mush Love Crew to make a statement for the blog, they gladly told us a little about themselves:
“Our June show was our first all-night outdoor party as Mush Love Crew, so that was super special. Our deco coordinator is Stacia Weener at @Staciaflowersolutions on ig, she absolutely deserves to be mentioned because our stage only looks that good because of her. We also did that one as a collaborative effort with Siskiyou Psytrance. At that party we had an international dark psy duo called Promnesia play. We also had Feral Selector from SoHumSyndicate, Agent 37 from Siskiyou Psytrance.
Our July party we collaborated with our sister crew Fractal Factory out of Oakland. Our headliner was Tugadoom, a brilliant live experimental dark psy act from South Africa originally. Also from the crew was Luzidtrip who played an outstanding forest set.
Mush Love Crew’s resident DJs are Melting Vision, Pymander, and Joe-E. I founded this crew on New Year’s Eve of 2023 with the goal of building a home for psytrance in Humboldt County. Hope this is helpful, and I’m happy to provide any more info! We’ve got another party in the works for early November!
Stacia is renowned as a found and foraged artist, creating her works using materials she finds around her. She emphasizes reusing, repurposing, and utilizing nature as much as possible. Her unique vision aligns perfectly with our Psytrance crew. Additionally, she’s very welcoming to other artists who wish to collaborate or get involved.”
I highly appreciate their ability to bring high-energy dancing and a neon atmosphere to the event. The DJs bring high-quality psytrance back to the dance floor.
Our Tea Lounge is a new addition to the Eclectic Farms parties. Our goal is to create a place to relax, revive, and connect with the community. The Tea Lounge dome tent came from a grant for the Festival of Dreams in Eureka, where many of our crew members participated in the “Wigi Dome” project. The Tea Lounge displays art by local artists, offers donation-based tea and sweet treats, and has a plethora of pillows, blankets, and small tables. I enjoy offering tarot readings in the tea lounge, along with live painting outside of the lounge. Some of the aesthetics might be familiar to those who know Little Lost Forest, with themes of the forest, the human body, and otherworldly creatures. As a team, we collaborate on art projects and strive to create immersive art so others can join in the experience of creation. In July we featured Cal Poly Artist Jolie.
This Saturday 8/10/24 we will be back on Titlow Hill. Tealulah will be joining us with @tealullahstravelingtealounge. We look forward to serving unique tea blends that stimulate or relax the mind. I expect to be showcasing ceramic sculptures by Jackalope Studios. Jackie is a Cal Poly graduate, ceramics studio artist and painter. We display paintings by Natascha and Jeremy Pearson. Natascha has been painting at EDM events since 2012 with San Diego crews Triptych, Soul Works and the Cool Cat Cafe. Jeremy is a local cannabis grower with twenty years of experience, currently working @primeexotics_dispensary off broadway in Eureka. @Orioncooksit is our team chef, who specializes in health conscious and energizing organic options. Our newest team member @disenchantedcreations is our rave mom who is embarking on a van life adventure and world schooling. Together we make the Tea Lounge a place for you to enjoy.
The Epitome Gallery 420 2nd St, Eureka, CA 95501 (707) 798-1541
The Heart of Humboldt: The Cannabis Dispensary 601 I St # B, Arcata, CA 95521 (707) 822-9330
Wok Out 307 2nd St, Eureka, CA 95501 (707) 222-6677
Zen Dispensary 437 F St, Eureka, CA 95501 (707) 407-0455
Showcase Products
American Cancer Society 611 Harris St, Eureka, CA 95503 (707) 443-2241
Arcata Farmers Market G and, 8th St, Arcata, CA 95521 (707) 441-9999 Arcata Farmers Market
Autumn by the Acres (October) Fig Tree (May) Pop Up Market (June) Truckers Parade (December) Redwood Acres 3750 Harris Street Eureka, CA 95503 (707) 445-3037
Azila’s Cauldron 122 Main St, Scotia, CA 95565 (707) 336-2023
Coffee and Chocolates 211 F St, Eureka, CA 95501 (707) 445-8600
I just came back from an amazing vacation traveling cross country with Rose @disenchantedcreations and her son, Malachai (3), and my son Malakai (2.5.) She had made the trip to New York six months prior and was inspired to begin a van life adventure. I’m also very drawn to the road so after a month of planning we came up with a sort of solid idea for our trip, with our final destination being Bernett, Texas for the Texas Eclipse 5/8/24 and the Texas Eclipse Festival. Most people probably would not have been comfortable with the loose plans we had had time to discuss and the looooong drive ahead, but we did not mind. We had four days to get to Texas from Humboldt County to be in time for the festivities. Nothing could stop us.
We packed up the van with car-camping supplies; stove, pot, pan, utensils, flashlights, floaties for the lake, propane, soap, sponge, and dishrag. Clothing for us and the kids; including diapers, cosmetics, and swimwear. Toys for us and the kids; coloring books, flow toys, toy cars, beads and tools, bingo, tablets. We also brought a children’s potty, mattress/bedding, jumper cables, and bungee cords. We used yellow totes to hold up the mattress and a few rectangular storage containers to go along the sides. At the back(trunk) was a large cloth container that contained toiletries, easy-to-access alcohol, snacks, and eating utensils. The mattress folded in at the back so the car seats fit perfectly in the middle aisle with the cooler in between the two (with enough room for the kids to look over at each other.) It took both of us to close the trunk every time it was opened, because the memory foam mattress stuck out about a foot. To say the least, the car was stuffed to the point of almost bursting, but being together with the kids on a wild adventure made it all worth it.
Malachi began the trip with “My best friend Malakai.”
You would think two toddlers would ring each other’s necks after an hour in the car in a tight space, but that wasn’t the case at all! We started at night and drove from Humboldt to Calaveras arriving at a friend’s house. This stop wasn’t on the way but the comfort and joy of seeing friends who don’t live close by began our trip on an upbeat note. The kids played in the blacklight lit art space till the wee hours of the morning until we put We’re Back: Land Before Time onto the projector and cuddled up on the couch. We knew we’d have to leave at a decent time in the morning and our time together was short, so we sucked up the time together in exchange for sleep.
The next morning the kids took their wizzes (Malachi is potty trained but Malakai is still learning) and we hopped in the car and continued our adventure. We made a pact that we would not eat fast food on this trip (the go-to for people on the road.) And this proved easy to carry out because neither of us likes fast food and we both love salads!! So we stopped at a grocery store and got an item and drink for everyone. We did not want to overfill the car with food that would go bad so buying small portions was important to us. Also, buying fruit was a must. We had a never ending supply of grapes to snack on in the middle console.
We drove to Barstow where we would make the sharp east turn toward Nevada. We stopped for Mexican Food and sat at the table for a much-needed rest. Rose and I would split our meals when we ate out, exploring each other’s likes and finding a middle ground between our dislikes. After, we hiked along the Pacific Coast Trail along the freeway. The sun was setting behind the mountain tops and I carried my son who was exhausted from the night prior. We found a metal box with a log and hand sanitizer along with many hidden cartons of water.
Back in the car, we drove into Nevada, just barely missing a friend I wanted to visit and hit a truck stop in Arizona. The truck stop was full of floodlights, and even though I considered parking between two trucks we decided to park up a road past the truck stop on top of a hill that overlooked the street. Rose was ultimately worried this first night that illegally camping on mountain tops would bother me. After the first night she knew she didn’t have to worry about my roadsleep morals. We unpacked the car seats, left them outside and placed all the other backpacks and bags on top of the bed into the front seat. The first time we did this it must have taken 30-40 minutes but with time this unpacking would go faster and faster.
We had a night of not being bothered. Sleeping very close to the ceiling of the van would seem claustrophobic but it wasn’t. We enjoyed the baby snuggles and having this time together. We packed up the car in the morning and continued to drive. It was around this time that Rose would take morning shifts and I would take night shifts, exchanging throughout the day if necessary. We drove 8.5-hour days on the way there. Stopping for an hour’s walk along the way. There was very little disagreeing and the kids were pampered by the mother not driving.
Getting into Texas we were excited for the Texas Eclipse Festival. We slept on a dirt road that night, which we figured was surrounded by farmland. We were awoken at 5 am by a man whom we begged for forgiveness and told him we would move on. He kinda laughed at us in our PJs puddled together in the car with our kids. We picked up some food that day for the weekend and checked the tire pressure, then we were ready to go into the event. The kids kept saying “Party! Party!” When we pulled up there was a line but it was moving steadily. Rose jumped out of the car and tried to hustle a ‘Family Car Camping Pass’ but the line was moving too quickly, we almost lost her. Security waved us right through not opening a door or luggage. Finding a camping spot was hard. By Friday everyone was already camping on top of one another. We had to squeeze ourselves in to fit. We did push our way into the extended family camping, we thought this was important that we were around other kids and not a bunch of wooks. After all, we are bringing our toddlers into a 40,000-person rave, it would be nice to have a safer campsite to go back to. While we were setting up camp there was no room for the pop-up, so we had to makeshift the pop-up on top of the car and utilize the little bit of space around us to put our kitchen and chairs. We immediately made friends with the people around us. A single mom was camping next to us with two children, one a toddler, and the kids hit it off and played as we settled in. Within the first hour of arrival, someone gifted us glamping passes (no we did not think to move camp) which offered us unlimited showers. This was a big win because the Browners station had a big crowd and a long line, which would have surely overstimulated my Malakai. The showers ultimately helped with our children’s cleanliness and breathing which by the end of the festival, I was concerned about Malakai’s hack.
We went out together on Friday, bringing the kids in my wagon that had wheels meant for the dirt. Right at arrival we were surrounded by young rave girls and wooked out men who gushed over our “rave babies” offering them kandy bracelets and stickers. The kids were already covered in dirt and wide-eyed. My Malakai kept trying to jump out of the wagon and was hard to keep up with. Our neighbor turned around at the top of the hill as we continued to trudge our way in. It was a very large map and the stages were incredible, art installations all along the way, pop-up tents with astronomy studies, food trucks, and art galleries. The foot traffic picked up and my Malakai would not wear his ear muffs or come when called by name. I had to call it a night as soon as the night began, while the other Malachi danced away at the sun stage, soaking it all in.
By the time Rose came back, we traded spots, and I was able to go out while she slept with the kids. I roamed around really taking an interest in the art and the tea lounge which had live music and multiple tea-serving spaces.
The next day we did this routine again, feeding the kids, walking into the festival together, and taking the kids in the wagon. I enjoyed dancing to the Desert Hearts Takeover and Malachi passed out resin gifts his mother crafted to everyone he could. While my Malakai spent his time napping in the wagon. At night I was able to see my favorite DJ Ahee and reconnect with my Triptych community.
It is different going to the festival with kids. There was a lot less partying with friends and more focus on the children, but that was okay. We’re exposing our kids to an environment they may very well seek later in life and showing them that they can make connections not on drugs and enjoy the festival from the eyes of a child. After all, children can easily be compared to an adult on L or mushrooms if you think about it.
On Sunday we went to the quarry and swam in the lake. My Malakai hadn’t done much swimming before that. He wouldn’t let go of me but also didn’t want to get out. These silly memories are so precious. When we towel-dried off there was a group next to us. I gave the three of them Tarot readings and they looked up at me wide-eyed in awe. Malakai walked around picking up rocks and throwing them as I watched to make sure they didn’t hit anyone around us. The hecklers encouraged Malakai’s naughty behavior.
Malakai and I also got some alone time at one point. We danced at kids’ camp, climbed the rickety structure, and went into the dome where a piano player played a gentle heart-lifting tune while images of astrology signs were projected against the ceiling. Malakai laid on me, surrounded by community, while looking up and cooing at the designs. Holding him in my arms I was okay with missing the psychedelic speeches, the yoga sessions, and the crowded stages. This was a time for us to be together, I no longer needed to go find the next thing, my thing was right here sitting in my lap.
Exodus on Monday morning was not expected and shocking. It was so abrupt I couldn’t think. “Tornado warning, everyone must leave!” And only hours before the eclipse. We packed up the car and debated meeting up with our friends who we hardly had any time with or some we hadn’t seen at all. But once we were in the car we were pushed out of the festival in the forever moving line on the way out. Were we going to risk the chance of being caught in a tornado with the kids? Without the kids, you’d have to drag me out of the party but with the kids… We were already on an adventure, us being together was the adventure. So fuck it, we moved on!
Outside of the venue we stopped at a gas station and found a tornado shelter (I would not have known what this was if Rose hadn’t told me) to sit on top of with the children. There were lots of festival-goers around us. We took out our glasses, popped a bottle of mead and cheered! The energy of the eclipse was heavy. We were told that animals (and children) might act strange. Malakai was fascinated with the moon, “the moon, the moon” he would say as I held his glasses and he pointed at the sky. It was all rather lovely but then the moon started traveling to the left of the sun and yes my Malakai began to misbehave, sliding down the storm drain and running around in the brush. I sat him in the car almost in tears. Was it because we left the festival frantically? Was it the eclipse? Was it the feeling of lacking the festival experience because I brought my kid? Or was it self-hatred, uncertainty? But that’s what it brought on. I sat in the car for a minute and self-reflected. It would be a long drive after this. It was time to recollect.
We stayed the night near a lake on our way to White Sand. We set up our table after putting the kids to bed. We drank and beaded rave bracelets even though it was post-party. I made a handful for my family to give out when I got home. In the morning it was so beautiful waking up parked next to the water. Maybe van life is for me. The car next to us, even though we were hours away from Bernett, had also attended the festival. The gentleman was from San Francisco and considered himself an eclipse chaser. He was so kind and friendly, another reminder of the eclectic types of people that the festival scene draws in. He also moped for us when we left, finding some of the kid’s toys and sending me a text to pick them up from San Francisco the next time I visited.
We continued on our adventure. Driving and hiking, and staying in a hotel one night for a much-needed shower and to indulge in the pool. We hiked Pyramid Mountain, and up in the snow of New Mexico. We searched for caves and found a wonderful quiet and free camping spot in the woods. We never once paid for our van camping spot outside of the festival. On the second to last day of our trip a strap was loose on the roof of the car and no matter how many things we rearranged we could not make the loud obnoxious rattling go away. This is when things became tense and we adults began to grow frustrated and butted heads. Once we pulled over safely and were able to fix the problem we came back to our senses and were able to discuss what the issue was and how to respond better next time. A big part of traveling is communication. In a small space, both parties need to admit faults and grow from the experience. It’s a utopia to believe you can get along with your road dog 100% of the time.
But, I’m proud to say we got along 95% of the time through positive reinforcement, sharing responsibilities, and strong communication.
The last night we were around Santa Rosa, 4 hours away from home and it was time to sleep. We drove 30-45 minutes off the freeway past neighborhoods and as close to a hiking trail as we could get. We unpacked the car close to midnight and as soon as we closed our eyes the rain began to pour. I couldn’t help but stress in my head that the car seats were soaking up outside. In the morning I jumped out of bed and started getting things ready. We took off the car seat covers and put them in a bag. We covered the seats in blankets and repacked the car at our fastest speed, 20 minutes. It wasn’t nearly that bad.
We ended our trip with a wonderful breakfast. I am so thankful to have spent this time with my friend Rose and her Malachi. I have done a handful of camping trips with my children and a few festivals with my oldest when she was as young as five but never have I ever taken my toddler to what can easily be considered a massive that took us through four states to get to. I am so gracious that Rose was willing to share this experience with me and that she had a nag for hiking, healthy food, and in-depth conversations. This was truly a magical experience and I encourage all families to take the plunge and travel the world outside of their comfort zone.
Sunday March 17, 2024. Natascha drove down to Red Bluff in Southern Humboldt County, with her father and son to meet up with Soulshine on their property to talk glass. Inspired by their work she had seen at Summer Arts and Music, as well as their last shop in Eureka, and their fun-ky Facebook podcast. Her quest was to find out ‘What’s next?’
Natascha: Thank you for meeting with me today. I’m Natascha from the Little Lost Forest blog. I’m excited to learn more about Soulshine and your new space here in Southern Humboldt. How are you guys doing today?
Ember: I’m doing awesome.
Willow: Yeah, we’re really, really enjoying this spring day.
Natascha: Ember and Willow, welcome back from Wisconsin. How was your trip?
Ember: We were in Wyoming. [They mentioned they did have a studio in the past in Wisconsin, Natascha messed up.] And the trip was awesome.
Willow: It was awesome. We were there for, like, six weeks.
Ember: We really enjoy going to different studios, which we got to do in Wyoming. We got to teach and help them develop classes and product and then we also got to blow glass of our own. So, it was just a really awesome situation. Sam and Alicia, they’re awesome people. We had a great time.
Natascha: That sounds like so much fun.
Ember: Hoping to do more with them in the future. So that’s kind of fun and exciting for us. So, moving in more than one direction. But at the same time, we’re going to get to blow glass, we’re going to get to teach. So, a couple of our passions.
Willow: Yeah. Lots of exciting things.
Natascha: Right on. I watched a video on your website. It mentioned that you’ve been blowing glass for 19 years. Is that still accurate?
Willow: Uh, I have been blowing glass since 1994. So, this is 30 years this year.
Natascha: Wow. Congratulations. Woohoo! How about you?
Ember: I’ve been blowing glass. I actually took glassblowing in college. I don’t know if I should even say what year it was. It was a very long time ago. But I also, at the same time, had three kids living on the mountain and really got into that for a while. And I think I’ve been back into glassblowing full-time since 2010.
Natascha: What’s your process like? Do you sketch out your artwork before creating it, or do you prefer to work spontaneously?
Willow: I think both. Sometimes you’re making things that have to fit in a box, because it’s an order for something. And other times you’re making things, where you have to share a vision with other artists and you have to be able to kind of have a plan for that. It can just flow as it go(es) kind of thing. But everybody needs to understand the same kind of end goal. So, that each person can find where they fit into that collaborative team. It’s hard to do that. You know, when you’re by yourself and you’re just going for it, making shit, then you can just be open and free.
Ember: I think that’s one of the things that you’re really good at is in a collaborative class teaching situation, you do, he does a great job at actually drawing out the plan, organizing people so that everybody’s got a part, and a job. And it’s kind of somewhat defined as- not as far as what artwork they’re doing, but where that part will be on the piece. And that, I think is a talent of yours. It’s super helpful in teaching and collaborating with other artists. Yeah.
Natascha: Lovely. Your artwork features brilliant and smooth colors. What’s your favorite palette to work with?
Willow: I think I have some crazy ideas. I think the best color palette we get are the ones where, uh, where I let Amber pick the colors.
Natascha: Ooh.
Willow: Wait, you know, not even that. I like when she just drives the ship. She’s like, this is what it’s gonna be. And I love it because then I…
Ember: We, like, you know, go back and forth, we go…
Willow: Back and forth like we always battle between; I like bold black line outlines, you know what I mean? Like, I like everything to look like a traditional tattoo, you know, with a really fat black outline and a bold image, like a sticker, like you would see a bright poster image.
Ember: I like all the colors between.
Willow: So, she wants it like, white and, like, she wants white in between every line.
Ember: I don’t just like white, I like all the colors!
Willow: And I want black in between every line. And so somewhere between white and black, you have to find a balance, you know. But as far as the colors together, I don’t really have a good sense of that. Like, she definitely influences that unless I know like I’m gonna do a fire water palette, but then I know. Well, all right, I’m gonna pick the fire colors and then the water colors and then- But otherwise if I don’t go with what she says…
Ember: I love color.
Willow: If I don’t go with what her plan is then…
Ember: -If it has purple and fuchsia. Yeah, right. You know, bright, beautiful green. Oh, yeah. Just the drippy, yummy stuff that just makes you want to kind of drool a little at the mouth and makes your eyes just kind of pop and your heart like, whoa.
Willow: You can’t argue with that. You gotta be like, fuck yeah, right. This is the perfect blend, right?
Ember: Throw some sparkles in there.
Willow: If it was up to me, it would be like; yeah, it’s black and white and purple and blue and yellow and green and like, holy shit balls. You know what I mean?
Ember: We have fun with color together. Yeah.
Natascha: I dig it. What is the learning process like for mastering glassblowing?
Willow: Hours is powers. [pause] It’s how you get to Carnegie Hall, right? You got too hours with powers, right? That’s the same thing. It’s like. Hours is powers. If you want to do anything. It’s not really about how talented you are or how smart you are, or how dumb you are or how cool you are, it’s about how much do you want to do that thing, and how much are you willing to dedicate your life to doing that thing.
Ember: So, passion, passion does come in there because hours, you still have to have passion for that medium. Uh, I like think about glass all the time and how much I actually love the medium. Like I was just, for some reason, thinking about it the other night. And I was thinking about how I look at it has changed over the years. And now, where at one time I was afraid, kind of, for when I’d get the glass so hot that it would just flow and move. Now I get off on that. I like, love it. I love how it gets so soft and movement and I can control and make the movement happen. It’s really symbiotic feeling. I love that feeling of symbiosis with the medium. I think that is really…
Willow: Yeah. It’s like an extension of your hand.
Ember: Or your whole body. More, more beyond that. Yeah. Your passion.
Natascha: What are some of the dangers and risks associated with glassblowing?
Willow: Uh, you get addicted to glassblowing. It’s just like.
Ember: It’s like it’s addicting.
Willow: Kind of like crack or heroin or any of those kinds of drugs, really.
Ember: Let’s refer to it as bitten by the glass bug. It’s a little bit nicer. It’s happier, I like it.
Willow: It’s really hard on your bank account. You gotta be dedicated and willing to bust your ass. And so, you gotta be willing to be rich, be poor, be rich, you’re poor, you’re rich, you’re really poor, you’re rich, you’re poor. And that’s like how it is. And if you’re lucky, there’s a you’re rich part that’s like enough to save enough money that you can, like, actually buy groceries. You know, like it’s a commitment that you’re like, this is what I’m gonna do. And some people, they just have another job and they just do that on the side. And those are some people that got a pretty good idea sometimes because it’s hard. It’s hard. And so, it’s hard on that. You know I don’t think like other risks. Like you’re not going to blow your ass up. Maybe. People get burned, but I, I think the pizza taking pizza out of the oven is way sketchier. I don’t know. I get a lot of little cuts that like, they’re just tiny little cuts, you know, but they’re in like a shitty spot and then you get them, like, all over, and then suddenly you have like 8 or 9 and you’re like, I have some kind of curse of the 10,000 cuts and these. That sucks really bad.
Ember: You know what? I get cut, I get burned, and I, I don’t know, it’s still like, somehow, I hardly even feel it. I just want to get back and do it more.
Willow: You get superpowers.
Ember: Yeah, yeah.
Willow: You just like, gotta push through it.
Ember: Yeah. I got the worst burn on my hand right here.
Willow: Oh yeah, that hot graphite.
Ember: I dropped a graphite tool. And I tried to catch it because I didn’t want it to break on the floor because, you know, they’re expensive.
Willow: It didn’t, it didn’t break.
Ember: It didn’t break, but it burned my hand pretty bad.
Willow: That graphite. Don’t fucking play. That graphite like, just fucking hurts.
Ember: But aloe is a wonderful thing. Aloe and a little lanacane.
Willow: And weed.
Ember: And weed.
Willow: I’ve heard, that weed is really good for that.
Ember: I don’t know.
Willow: I heard that, yeah.
Ember: I think so. I yeah, I smoked, I did try, I used it, it seemed to help.
Natascha: Talking about budgets, what aspects of glassblowing tends to be more expensive and are there ways for beginners to start on a budget?
Willow: Ooh, glass is expensive.
Willow: I think that (where) there is a will, there is a way. I think you can totally start on a budget. Willow will kind of say the opposite. He’s like, buy the giant torch, spend all the money right away. But I don’t feel that way. I feel like starting out at your comfortable spot and working your way that direction. Because even if you buy yourself a small torch, I think buying yourself the largest, the best, hottest, small torch or a torch that you can work with, I don’t know. You’ll have to get out there on the glass classifieds and look for somebody who’s no longer interested or upgrading. People upgrade all the time.
So starting out small with a torch that you can afford and working your way up. As you get better, you’ll be able to sell more things and put that money back into your glassblowing. Just like if you had any type of business or something passionate that you were about you would take whatever money came that way and put it back into it, you know? So, I think that is a really good thing to do with glassblowing because you can start out and if you’re really strong and passionate about doing this, you’re going to find a way and you’re going to make those really awesome pendants, those little things, those sculptures or those small pieces that make you happy. You’re going to go out there and you’re going to show them to people. You’re going to share your love, your passion for what you’ve made, and people are going to want part of that. And then you’re going to be able to build your kind of pocket full of things you can do, and that you have, you know, to get through life with. And put that back into your business and get more color, get a bigger torch, and keep moving forward. Because just like life glass is a journey.
Natascha: Wonderful. Can you share some advanced techniques that you guys have mastered?
Willow: We do a lot of sectional montage and linework techniques. Ember does a lot of incredible sculptural pieces that we bring together, like the two a lot, and that has been some of the best kind of things we’ve been doing lately.
Ember: Yeah, I love when we just, like, come up with an idea and I get to sculpt some amazing picture that came into my mind and make it three-dimensional out of glass. I love it. It’s amazing. And then we get to put that together with some amazing shapes that Willow comes up with color and we work together.
Willow (whispers): She picks the colors.
Ember: We do some awesome stuff together at the same time. Like, my love for glass doesn’t stop at lampworking. I really love working out of the furnace and making big pieces of glass work, which involves a lot of body movement. It’s a whole nother part of the medium. And it’s one of the awesome things about the medium is I feel like it’s endless learning. So, if you’re one of those people who likes to be challenged, you love learning. I feel like I could keep learning about different parts and areas of glass my whole life and still not feel like I’ve touched everything. So that’s exciting.
Natascha: Yeah, it’s humble coming from such a master. Super cool. Is it possible to accidentally burn the glass during the blowing process?
Ember: Mm mm. Interesting. Yes. Depending on the type of glass, you can.
Willow: You can boil the glass by heating it with two forceful and hot of a flame or whatever you’re heating it with at one time. And you’re blasting it so hard that the surface boils before the heat can radiate into the core of the piece, like thermodynamics. Right? It’s like a pot pie. It stays hot in the middle, and it cools from the outside, but it has to heat up the same way, because glass is an insulator and it’s going to pull its heat into the core. That’s what makes it gather into a round ball or something like that. And so any flame that you put to it, it’s gonna get hot and it’s gonna melt. But if you like, heat it on high, it’s gonna boil the rice, you know, and you don’t want to boil the rice, and you want to simmer the rice really slowly. And so when it can hold that water in and absorb that, you know, then you have that perfect rice. And it’s the same thing with the glass. It wants to be heated in the right kind of flame for the situation. Even different kinds of glass, different…
Willow: –colors.
Ember: Different colors. Yeah. Uh, have different chemicals or reactive properties that sometimes you want to boil. You want to boil the rice, sometimes a little bit that you get to break the rules or bend the rules. And then there’s other times that you want to like activate the system and you heat the glass and when you heat it, in a different kind of flame, different shit happens, you know what I mean?
Molecules inside the matrix get to float to the surface and create different colors or different effects. Right?
-Ember
Ember: Yeah.
Willow: Kind of like that.
Natascha: Yeah. That was a really good answer.
Willow: Is it too sciency?
Natascha: No, that was so cool.
Willow: Fucking science shit’s awesome.
Natascha: I think so too. Yeah. What’s your favorite type of piece to create?
Ember: I love creating sculptural pieces. I pretty much do a lot of sculptural pieces that I would want to put on functional pieces. And I do a lot of sculptural pieces. I like to make pendants so that people could wear them.
Natascha: What kind of themes do you like to use?
Ember: Um, mostly themes from nature. I love everything about the world in nature, and I love flowers, I love animals, I love trees, I love, yeah. And I actually get really inspired by colors of nature, I don’t know.
Natascha: How about you, Willow? Favorite type of piece to create?
Willow: I like to work with line work, and what that means is that I make a tube that’s a hollow tube but has like encased different colors all around it. So, it’s a lined tube that’s hollow. And I make that first, and then I pull that out, and when I pull it out, I get about four feet of that same color, really dense color, lined tube. And then I take that one piece and I rip it up into like 30 smaller pieces of line tubing, and then I twist them all together in different ways and then reassemble them back together in different ways often on like a 90 degree off-axis. And then there’s all this math that goes into it, and, uh, I get really into shape with the math formula of taking the spirals and stacking them together and reassembling the sections to make more patterns. And then if I make this many here and, you know, three, three, three, anyway, you know what I mean? It gets all mathy. But I like to create patterns like through that with the lines, by reassembling the lines and create really elegant forms. I think I really like extreme flat like transitions, you know, like, I don’t know, instead of slopey bubbles. I like to be, like, cut shapes. Yeah.
Natascha: Ember, now I hear what you mean about the shapes.
Willow: And it’s all math, though. That puts that back together again. That’s the… I don’t know, I sucked at math in school.
Natascha: I did too, I’m not good at math.
Ember: Math’s not my favorite thing at all.
Natascha: But now you’re using math in a different way and it is how you connect with it now.
Willow: That’s how I see math, I guess, all along.
They [teachers] didn’t show me that, like, hey, you can take a spiral and put three spirals together and it makes this other spiral.
-Willow
I’d be like, oh shit, there you go. I get the math. I’d have gotten an A. [laughter] They just didn’t teach me like that. They just taught me the other way. Yeah. You know they taught me the other math.
Natascha: And we talked a little bit about your inspirations being nature. Are there other inspirations that come through in your design work and your art?
Ember: I mean, if we’re going to do something like a collab piece, there’s different things that’ll create inspiration. If we’re going to do lighting for somebody’s house. Okay. I love doing that, too. [dream-like] What’s going to make their house look beautiful, you know? Yeah.
Willow: That’s always fun. Envisioning color palettes in lighting. They’re made in layers. So, we start with white on the inside, and then we put down other colors. And then we put down other colors over that. And then the light is inside shining out. So, you’re seeing that radiate out. So, you’re really seeing this like matrix of layers of glass and transparent colors over opaque colors over different other colors, you know, with spaces and gaps in between. So, you can create something that’s like, really cool and create a whole effect in somebody’s house. You know, I think that was really a fun thing to do. You can really, uh, really it ties the room together, you know?
Ember: Well, and it’s just also knowing you’re making this functional piece that’s going to be part of people’s lives every day and light their world… In glass it looks amazing.
Willow: Yeah, I love glass.
Willow: Um. Uh oh. I almost knocked the bong over.
Natascha: Before getting into glassblowing, what other forms of art were you guys involved in?
Ember: I think that I did all kinds of art growing up my whole life. My dad’s a really awesome artist and a painter and sculptor. And my mom had us involved in doing all kinds of arts and crafts. That’s how our family communicated. That’s how our family got along. I don’t know, I feel pretty blessed that was my world growing up, because I think that carries over into my life and my kids’ lives that I get to share that love with them. And I’ve always said if I wasn’t working in glass, I’d be working in another medium. Whatever’s available out there, I would grab and want to make stuff with it. So, I don’t know. I feel like I’m really blessed to get to work with glass, but also working with anything that’s out there in your world that you can see, like you can make art out of anything, everything. And that’s one of the amazing things about it, just go outside and look around you. If you can’t make it outside, look around your house, make art out of something you have. I, yeah, I think that I guess.
What did I do before? Let’s see before. Right before I got into glass, I was making jewelry using glass beads, and I was like, fuck, I want to make my own glass beads. I don’t want to use other people’s glass beads. These beads were from all over wherever, you know, and I wasn’t feeling conscious about that. I was like, I want to make my own glass jewelry with my own glass beads. So I took, uh, glass bead-making class in college. And back then, I mean, there wasn’t hardly any glass classes or anything hardly going on. It was like, uh, this couple came over. He had designed some, like, head for the map gas. And we all, like, used map gas to make beads. And we stuck them in vermiculite and, um.
Willow: Low tech.
Ember: Very, very low tech. So that’s why when people say, oh, I don’t have enough money to set up a situation to blow glass, I kind of feel like, just like that. Go back to that first time that I blew glass, and, it took nothing; but it took a metal rod, some bead release, some vermiculite and a metal bucket and a little Mapp gas with an airhead on it and I made glass beads. And that’s because I think that there’s that whole situation. If you really want to do it, don’t wait, don’t wait till you have that big, thick thing of money. Don’t wait. Take that little bit and start and let it grow.
Ember: Crazy.
Natascha: Cool. So, do you guys sell your artwork in Wyoming as well?
Willow: Yes, we did.
Natascha: Are there other locations where you guys display your art?
Willow: Let’s see, we have our artwork at Ph Glass, Plaid Hemp Company. They have five locations in Wyoming. You can buy some of our functional pieces and we sell our other work. On our Facebook page or off of our Instagram.
Ember: Yeah. I have a proto line that I’ve sold to different shops.
Ember: They have 19 stores throughout Washington and Oregon. Ash Denton has some of my pieces he picked up at Vegas.
Willow: Xhale City. They have 29 stores in Georgia, and they have a bunch of our glass.
Ember: So, I think it’s all over the place. It’s all over.
Willow: But if you want, like, you can just hit us up in the DMs. That’s what the kids say. Yeah. And we’ll be happy to make something for anybody. And we’re almost ready to have people out taking classes.
Ember: Yeah. And we’re happy to start doing custom orders.
Willow: Custom orders, all this stuff.
Ember: And we should be doing classes, hopefully. You know, I think it’s going to take us probably another few weeks. 3 or 4 weeks, I would say. And then we can maybe start doing class. Actually depends on the weather. If we get a lot of rain, it might be too muddy. But if the weather stays gorgeous like this. Yeah, that’ll be amazing.
Willow: If it dries out a little bit. It’ll be perfect.
Ember: But eventually that’s our big plan, you know, that we see in our future is being able to set this place up so people can come out here. We especially want to start a community out here where maybe we’re working with underprivileged youth and kids at risk and being able to have kids out here where they can be part of nature, relax and maybe get in touch with their spiritually motivated passions, and art forms that we can see all around us. And being able to share that with them and hopefully get them in the glass shop, experiencing that as a medium. One of the things I love about it is that we can make it super fun, super simple. You don’t have to play the concert right off. You know, you can make some just really happy, fun things that just bring you joy. And I want to share that with people.
Natascha: I love your passion for the community. Right on. You kind of talked about this, but I recall your previous location in Old Town, Eureka. It was a glass shop with a studio in the back. What motivated you guys to move into this current space?
Ember: We’ve always had this dream about having Glass Camp, so we had that place in our studio over there in Eureka for ten years, and it was an awesome spot. We’re super, proud of everything that we got to do there and make happen, and all the classes and people that came through. We still feel really connected to that. But also at the same time, after the ten years we were there we felt like we could offer more. I think that us having this dream of Glass Camp and still sharing our passion when this place came up and was offered, we thought this was just the best place to grow a glass camp because it’s beautiful. It’s really not that far outside of many towns around here. We’re 20 minutes from Fortuna. We’re still only 40 minutes from the old glass shop. All that’s going to happen is you’re going to come out here instead of the place in town, you’re going to breathe fresh air. You’re going to relax and I feel like you’re just going to be able to get more in touch with that artist side of yourself, you know? And I don’t know, for me, I think it’s just bringing that good quality to life, to ourselves, our friends, our family, and sharing it with the community.
Natascha: You have the Eel River right here in the backyard?
Willow & Ember: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Willow: We got riverfront.
Ember: In the summer. We’re hoping to make a path down to the river. People can picnic, you know, and enjoy the water.
Willow: There’s kind of a path now.
Ember: We’re working on it a little.
Natascha: I admire how you’re growing everything from the bottom up. It’s too cool.
Willow: We were when we got here. It was like camping. We were camping here. It was. It was crazy.
Ember: Yeah, it was awesome.
Natascha: Can you give me a verbal visualization of what the new studio space might look like.
Willow: Oh, let’s see, right now it’s a 46-foot by 8.5ft wide. Refrigerated Safeway semi-trailer truck. Awesome, right? So, we put the shop in there. It’s ugly too, by the way. It is not a pretty one.
Ember: We’re gonna paint it.
Willow: She’s ugly, but you gotta have the vision. The current state on the outside is like, wow, that truck’s seen some miles, right?
Ember: We’re taking artistic designs right now for the outside of the truck. You never know. It could be like some amazing mural that we’re gonna put on there. That’s magic.
Willow: That’s exactly. The vision inside of there is, the very back is like a co-working room where we can do lapidary and polishing and cold cutting with the saw and all that kind of stuff. Ventilated, separate back area. And then there’s a spot where Ember’s torch and my torch are right together in there. And then there’s a spot where the lathe will go right next to that. And then after that, it’s kind of like another [Marvin. Leave her alone. (Talking about the dog)] Another long table where we’re going to have room for classes up to four people at a time. And then after that, on the end is hippie Chris. He has his spot right there. And so, there’s another side of the shop [Ember: That, Dave’s in there], and Dave’s in there as well with his torch.
Ember: We’re gonna bump it out…
Willow: We’re bumping it. Right. So that’s all on one side of the truck on the other side is pretty much an open wall, except we have our color rack somewhere in there, but we don’t know exactly where it goes. But we just got a sliding glass door that’s seven feet wide by 80in tall. So that’s pretty fucking tall, right? And it’s a sliding glass door. [Talking about the dog: Marvin. No, Marvin. He’s really. He’s really. Yeah. He likes people.] Uh, anyway, uh, yeah, it’s seven feet, seven feet wide. We got this big ass sliding glass door. And then, uh, right next to that, we have this other giant windows like we have in our house there, that eight foot wide by 2.5ft tall windows. We’re gonna put that right in next to it. And so we’re gonna then build a deck out there. But we have two trucks, right. You can’t see the other one. We have another one that was a Salvation Army, donation truck. She’s 32ft. That one actually has paperwork, man. It’s a pretty fucking nice truck.
Ember: We had a way to drive it. We could take it places. She’s a pretty nice truck. That’s part of a dream further down the line, now that…
Willow: -Now that the rain is over. Right. So, like, what we’ll do is where they’re at. They’re just parked parallel to each other. But we’re gonna move the salvation truck out of the way, take the big truck and slide it down like 10 or 20- as many 20fts as we can do down that way. And then we’re gonna turn the Salvation Army truck the other way. So it’s back end is like that, and it makes like a L or a T or wherever the fuck it fits. Right. And then…
Ember: –we can have a nice big deck.
Willow: Now we’re in that L pocket, we can hang out.
Ember: People can even hang out and watch glass blowing through the big sliding glass door or window.
Willow: Yeah, with the deck outside it.
Ember: You know, people want to go out and smoke. You can still watch us. You can still gather out there, create a really nice space.
Willow: With like a covered area. So that way people have an outdoor (area). Even in the winter, it might be pretty cool. And then we could even have an entrance into the other truck from the other side of the alley, you know. But they’re still trucks, so they’re temporary and they’re on wheels, and the decks won’t be attached to the buildings. They’ll be two inches apart.
Ember: Right next to it.
Willow: So, they’re temporary. And the county, you know, we’ll follow all the county guidelines because we’re like in a floodplain. So, we can’t like do build like that. We’ve had to kind of figure out all these other ways what’s allowed, what’s not allowed. We wanted…
Ember: -we wanted creativity.
Willow: …shipping containers, and then have an upstairs and all that. But then the county was like, no, you can’t have shipping containers. So, we had to get rid of our shipping containers. And then we got-
Ember: I know we’re lucky they took them back.
Willow: -semi trucks- I know.
Ember: We bought them locally, luckily. We wouldn’t have been able to do that if we bought them you know (big corp)…
Willow: And the people were super cool. They helped us find the semi-truck.
Willow: And the truck driver guy. He even went and got the semi-truck trailers and brought them here for us in the rain. And it was like right when the trucker parade was, yeah, Kenny, Kenny Howard, he’s awesome. And Travis and Cousin Travis, they both had an excavator and a semi-truck, and they got this.
Ember: They got the big rig stuff.
Willow: Yeah, they brought them in here and it was already Mud City. And Kenny got his big-
Ember: They moved our houses.
Willow: Yeah, they moved our houses. We couldn’t be over there because of the neighbors. So, Travis has, like, a big thing with a flatbed that moves, and we cut our houses in half because now they’re ten by 12, so they’re 120ft² under. You know, you guys can’t be over 120ft² without a permit.
Natascha: So, you’re following all the rules.
Willow: We cut them in half. Now we have 220ft². And Travis is awesome [Ember: I know]. He brought them all the way over here and put them back on the pure blocks.
Ember: Anyway, the shop’s going to be awesome when we get it together. Yeah, but it’s-
Willow: But it’s on wheels.
Natascha: It’s a party I wanted to attend. That sounds really cool.
Ember: Yeah, yeah. We’re gonna have little Christmas lights. It’s gonna be really nice.
Natascha: Does Soulshine have a motto or a guiding principle?
Willow: Oh, she’s got all those. You got all the good ones. Be the ripple. Uh, what was your?
Ember: Be the ripple.
Willow: Let your soul shine.
Ember: Why dream small when you can dream big? Yeah. And it’s I don’t know if you know. Remember, I don’t know. We have a lot of, um.
Ember + Willow: Lot of them. Shoot.
Willow: Stay lit.
Ember + Willow: Stay.
Willow: Stay lit, folks.
Ember: Yeah.
And, you know, don’t settle for the life that you have.
-Ember
If you don’t love it, you know, that’s part of dreaming big. What is the best vision of your life that you can envision? And when you see that, follow it, find that, follow it and don’t give it up. Just keep that in your vision. And I believe that it will keep unfolding in every, every fold that happens is like another part of that. So, you can see it. You can see it happening, you can see how close it is. Just wait. It will keep getting closer. And the other part of that is, is that’s going to keep changing. Just staying fluid in your art and staying fluid in your life and not just sticking to one thing, because there’s going to be times when you need those other things that you know and have learned and experienced or want to. Being able to stay fluid makes those new places happen.
Natascha: Those words resonate with me. Can you share some of the challenges you face in the glassblowing process or even within the business?
Willow: Glassblowing is just part of the business. Everybody thinks, oh, if I could learn to blow glass and I could learn to do this technique or make that kind of product, I could just be rich or I could make it and be successful. But really you have to be smart. You got to be a business person first. The glassblowing part is important and is why you do it. It’s what you’re passionate about, but it’s not what makes it happen.
You know what makes it happen is being a smart business person and knowing how to market yourself.
-Willow
Uh, a great artist with a shitty marketing department is not going to make it or is not going to really make it, you know, in any kind of way that’s able to put the kids through college and pay their bills. But crappy artists with a great marketing department and a really good photographer are gonna go far, you know, it’s just the way it is. And so, you have to find balance in what you want your life to be, or else you have to have good partners or friends or whatever to handle. You have to have a team, you know what I mean? And that takes different kind of business sense.
Ember + Willow: It’s hard.
Ember: It’s a hard job being an artist. You have to have a lot of hats.
Ember + Willow: There’s a lot of-
Ember: Hats, a lot of hats to wear.
Willow: A lot of pieces to the pie that all have to be able to come together – where the rubber meets the road, you know what I mean? Like, can you buy food? Can you buy gas? Can you live a way that you feel like you’re comfortable, whatever that level is that you need? You know, like I’ve seen artists find all those things. Like everybody, it’s different for every person. Some people just want to go out in the garage and make cool things and be inspired, because it doesn’t matter who you are, whether you’ve had a 30-minute marble-making class and you’re sitting there on the torch staring at that fire, trying to keep the little ball of goo from falling on the table or whatever the fuck. Or you’ve been doing it for 30 years and ten-million hours behind the torch or behind the fire in some way or another. That experience that high, that whatever- Like that experience. That ride is the same thing. That’s the same rush, that’s the same euphoria or catharsis or whatever.
I was having a really shitty day. I was really depressed. And then all of a sudden I, like, juggled the ball of goo and I can’t even remember why I was upset. And now I’m just like, whoa, look, I didn’t drop the ball of goo, right? And it’s like, it’s so simple, you know what I mean? But, like, it doesn’t matter why you blow glass or why you do that. Because if you juggle the ball of goo, you’re gonna feel that kind of experience. And it’s always the same. And I think that’s pretty cool. It transcends- glassblowing is like a staircase. Everybody’s on the staircase. Some people just started moving up before you. And some people do it every day for ten hours a day. And some people do it once a week or once a month, and everybody’s on that staircase. But everybody’s like, feeling that same feeling every time they go up the next step. Right? That same rush, that same, it’s fucking amazing. That’s if you can find a way to do that and pay your fucking rent, drop the mic right there. And it takes a lot. It takes a lot, I think. I think it’s like that with any art though. You can’t just expect because you can make cool art, that you’re gonna be able to sell it and make a living. And I’m gonna have a nice house and a picket fence, and their dog’s gonna be cute, and everything’s gonna be cool, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, I think that’s a great idea.
Natascha: It’s hard.
Ember: That’s just a fairy tale thing. Yeah, you know, it is. Life is hard work. If you really, really want something and it’s worth having, then you have to work a little bit for it. Yeah, maybe you have to work really hard for it and you-
Willow: –gotta keep working.
Ember: And maybe you have to work harder than you’ve ever worked in your whole life, but eventually you’ll get past that and it’s worth all that hard work.
Willow: And then you might have to start.
Natascha: I saw that when I met you guy. You put a lot of work into your relationship and into your art and to your business, and I see that.
Willow: It’s pretty amazing. You gotta really want something really bad. You know? You gotta really want something.
Ember: I think it takes that to make it through like those hard times, you know?
Willow: That’s the secret sauce right there. You just gotta really, really want that super bad and just do whatever it takes every day. You know, the successful artists aren’t the one that make a really badass piece of art. You go to like, the, we go to Glass Vegas, right? This big boiler silicate flameworking show all the big artists, everybody, all the everybody’s there. Big guys, small guys, famous guys, every guy, every guy, every girl, every amazing glass artist that’s in the scene. They’re all there. And there’s like a whole area in the beginning when you walk in with all this crazy ass amazing stuff, you’re like, holy fucking shit, right? Blows you away. And the best artists aren’t the ones that can make something like that. The best artists, the ones that can, like, make something and then on Monday morning, go back in the studio and make something again. And then in the morning, go back in the studio and make something again. And you know what I mean? Like, that’s what makes it, your ability to make art and then go back again and make something again. Whether it’s like coming up with another incredible idea that you’re passionate about for a whole new project that you’re gonna start all over again or what?
Ember: That’s where the whole world and whole community of glass comes in. I think that there’s many cogs on the wheel that in, like, art, it’s not one way, it’s not one person. It’s many ideas and many people and all of them are valid, and all of them have value and are amazing because, like, some of those big art pieces are truly, truly works of art. That person had a vision and they probably drew it out and they got together with multiple people and they made that dream happen. They made that come true. And so when we do go to that place in World Cup of Champions and of glass, you know, anywhere, and there’s so many of them, you know, in different types of glass. Yeah. Uh, admiration and, you know. No thought of you know what, what does that person actually do to make their money? I’ve just, like, in awe of, uh, how somebody can just dream their dream and make it in their medium. And it’s a piece of beauty that just makes me feel inspiration to be able to make people feel that and everyone gets to admire that. I think that’s what keeps helping them push us all forward in our medium. Wherever you’re at, if you’re wanting to just do proto if you want to do, you know, big art pieces or you just want to do your little thing. Either way, that inspiration of what can be is out there for us to see. And that’s what keeps pushing our community of borrow glass workers forward. It keeps pushing not just our artists, but it also keeps pushing, more than that; our tools, our colors, it all keeps moving forward, you know, and that is fucking community of glass. That is not just one person, not ten. It’s a huge worldwide community. And it is amazing.
Ember + Willow: Yeah.
Ember: Magic. There’s magic.
Natascha: You really hit my next question on the head, I was going to ask about the glassblowing community. Is there anything you wanted to add about the glassblowing community to help somebody that’s not in it, understand what that community looks like?
Ember + Willow: Mhm. Ah.
Willow: I think there’s a lot of people that see people from the outside looking in in the beginning, like artists that have been successful for a long period of time. And they seem to set wierd milestones based on what they see from artists who maybe have been doing it for 40,000 hours of time. And here somebody starts something and they have a good talent, but they get frustrated because they can’t compete with somebody that has 40,000 hours of practice ahead of you. And so I think that there’s a lot of like highs and lows in setting realistic expectations. Like if you want to blow glass to make money, you could blow glass for about three weeks. Learn like a set few things like how to make a little pendant, how to make a little marble, how to make a little league, you know, doodly bopper. And like, you could open up a pendant marble doodly bopper fucking mega domain on the internet and pay your kid’s college education, right? If you want to blow glass because you’re passionate about it, you just want to learn and grow and improve, and you don’t set those kinds of barriers to your own learning in front of you, then it’s a better ride. You know what I mean? Like, I don’t know, uh, because I think, I think a lot of people, they just see, like, all these things, I want to be able to do this or I want to be able to do that, and that’s all cool. You could do that and you could maybe make money doing that. But you can also do these really easy this, this, this and this make a bunch of money and then you can pay and afford to be able to do whatever your heart (desires).
Ember + Willow: Yeah.
Ember: Because all those little things are your practice. Yeah. Those are your small practice. It’s like your small meditation every day. That really comfortable zone where you’re like relaxed, you’re comfortable, and meditation starts happening. It’s that way for the glass when you’re starting, and it’s just comfortable with that small pendant and doing it again and again and again. And pretty soon meditation is happening and you’re not really thinking about so much what you’re doing. You’re just-
Willow: –just meditating. Meditating is huge. Breathing is-
Ember + Willow: -big.
Willow: Breathing with the glass.
I think once the glass starts moving, learning to time your rhythmic breathing in with the glass as you’re working, I find is really important for me, breathing through it.
-Willow
Otherwise, I notice I’m like getting really into something and I’m holding my breath and I’m like. And I’m tense and my shoulders are turning and my arms are working and my neck is tense as fuck. All in this contorted, really weird position. Or maybe I’m trying to use gravity in different ways, so I’m contorting my body and all kinds of angles in order to push the glass one way or the other. And if I don’t breathe out, I’m like, otherwise, I’m holding my breath and gritting my teeth and it’s-
Ember: Like, you don’t breathe, you could faint.
Willow: Yeah, you could go down. You saw that one go down. That guy go down one time. But he was kind of a dick.
Ember: Oh, yeah.
Willow: That guy went down anyway.
Ember + Willow: Wasn’t breathing.
Willow: No, he just was holding his breath. It got too hot. He was kind of a jerk. So, it happened.
Ember: Too many heats.
Ember: But that was in the, uh, in-
Willow: the hot shot. It was really hot that day.
Willow: Anyway.
Willow: We tried to tell him to breathe.
Ember + Willow: Shit.
Natascha: I think you got a full circle around the community. Thank you. [laughter] Yeah.
Willow: The glass community is all different people, though. There’s a lot of different people. There’s so many kinds of glass. There’s a million different…
Ember + Willow: -directions.
Willow: You can go. And each one involves a very deep fucking rabbit hole that you could suck you in for your whole life. Each one. Or you could pull out and say, I’m gonna be the jack of all trades, and I’m gonna, like, go down this rabbit hole and this one and this one, and then I’m gonna start combining rabbit holes together.
Ember: I’m a rabbit.
Willow: And so, it just depends on how many rabbit holes you want to go down. But there’s a different community for every rabbit hole. And then there’s a bigger, broader community of glass, and then there’s a bigger, broader community. It just depends on what you’re looking for. Some people just want to hang out in their garage and make cool shit. They’re gonna get the same high as the other people. Whatever you’re looking for in life, if you just look for it.
Ember: It’s a big community of people who are just people. Yeah, just like when you go out in the world, you’re going to meet all kinds of people. It’s like that in the glass community.
Willow: Yeah.
Willow: Not everybody likes licorice. Some people like licorice. They really like licorice.
[Natascha looks really confused]
Ember: You gotta think about that one.
Natascha: As talented of artists, as you guys are yourselves. Are there any other artists you particularly admire in this trade?
Ember: I’ve, I personally, girl fan out on some female glassblowers because it’s a male-dominated medium.
Willow: It is definitely a boys club.
Ember: I’ve noticed throughout the time I’ve been with glass that it is a boy’s club. It’s hard to even get in. It’s hard to even learn as a female glassblower. It’s getting, it’s changing and it’s changed, I think, a lot in the last ten years. But before then, it’s been really difficult for female glassblowers to not only be respected, that’s been lacking and still does in our community, but also sharing is different. Sometimes a lot of guys get together and, you know, maybe they can communicate together, but communicating with, uh, female that you’re kind of sometimes not in the big circle of, of everything. And so that’s been, I think, really challenging. As a female glassblower, I enjoy teaching because I want other women who have experienced that to experience more freedom. I want female community glassblowers to share. I would like to see there be more of a female glassblowing presence together and stronger. And there is that small group, but it’s really like a part of a little bit of a, you know, echelon group, which are, you know, people that I fan out on. So, you know, it’s okay.
Natascha: Can you name a few (female glassblowers)?
Ember: I really love Windstar. I, right now, I hope I don’t slaughter her name, Sibelley. She hasn’t been blowing glass very long, but she was able to move really far in the glass world. And I admire that about her. And I like that she’s moved around a lot, and she’s doing well. And she recently got a job teaching at Corning. And, fuck, I think it’s amazing. And she’s pretty young also. All different glass of flowers that I, like, admire. I love Kelly Howard, who has the Lincoln City glassblowing place right there in Oregon. I love what she did, and I love that she is a female glassblower. It’s fucking empowering.
Natascha: Okay. We only have one more question and this is the silliest. This is the one that I came up with last night before I printed everything and drove out. So, this one’s just for fun. If you see a shift of consciousness already happening in our world, what is it?
Ember: Uh, shift of consciousness is, I see it as a change in community. I think people are moving into from a physical community to an online communities. And so, I worry about the importance of being- eye contact, one-on-one, the importance of touch, the importance of hug, the importance of knowing people, truly knowing them. Because when we sit across from each other and this one-on-one, or even multiples, when we sit across from each other and we talk and we communicate and we share, we get to share so much more. We’re not only using our voice and our ears, but we’re also using what body language people use. The eye contact, just even the vibe, the feel, the energy that moves between us all; life, everything is energy. And I worry about us missing that. And that’s part of us wanting to have a community space and glass that we get to share. And, you know, we’re like- really- open to having all kinds of art and artists also sharing. So, you know, it moves beyond in creating more of that one-on-one community with each other. I think there’s a reason why we move in and out of each other’s lives. I think noticing the importance of that and the value in that, I think creates a bigger and better love for the community and each other. And I think that that’s what’s starting to move out of us all. And I don’t want that.
Natascha: Beautiful. Anything to add? Hello? Nope. It’s okay. You don’t have to.
Ember: What are we talking about again?
Natascha: The shift in consciousness.
Willow: Well, I think people are waking up. Some people are waking up and other people are resisting because their focus is maybe not ready for change, but I think there’s a lot of people waking up. I think there’s a lot of big things that are going to happen. And I think. Yeah. You got to be a warrior, though. This is great weed, right?
Natascha: Yes.
Ember: Maybe you’re in for the long haul, but that the part that really is, is not, not that you’d be at war, but that you be at peace. That you be at love, that you be open. Yeah. That you be open to the universe. To be open to love, share love, give love. One fucking smile can change somebody’s life in one moment. In one moment, that person could have needed that. Just one small gift didn’t cost you a penny, but you gave it and they respond back. Man, you know you did something. You know you changed something. The energy of that one person, they give back to you when they notice that your energy, you vibe, that energy, I don’t know. But the energy of being in touch with that energy of us all being together. That buzz, that fucking beehive.
Willow: What she said. Yeah.
Ember: Love, love.
Natascha: Well, thank you so much, Soulshine, for offering me your time, trusting me with your space, and sitting down for this interview. I hope that the Humboldt County community gets some really great information from this. And thank you to everyone who comes to visit my blog.
A little over six months after leaving my Sales Representative job, I wanted to share my experience securing appointments so that growers who like to get their cannabis out on the white market can have the same opportunity my husband and I had. It always succeeded. I could showcase our indoor bud to my county with the proper script that I wrote and I’m now ready to share.
First, I gathered a spreadsheet with all the information on local dispensaries. I googled everything close to me and expanded the search one town at a time. Every time I went out for sales, I would take an updated version of this spreadsheet. I dated the top corner, and on the spreadsheet, I included the business name, phone number, address, the buyer’s email address, the Cannabis buyer’s name, Orders/ Presentations, and follow-up. I added a link to this spreadsheet on my Etsy, and Fivver you can find it at the bottom of this post.
I left the last two columns, “Orders/ Presentations” and “Follow-ups,” blank. I then bring this spreadsheet with me when I make my presentations. I also have a blank page that I title notes.
Then I go down my list, and I call the dispensary.
The first thing they are going to ask you is for your LIC. Don’t waste your time if you don’t have a license.
Hello, this is (Name) with (Farm).
Can I speak to your cannabis buyer? What is their email? When will they be in? Can I get the spelling of their name?
**Wait to be transferred*
Hello, my name is (Name) with (Farm), formally known as (include any farms, names, or brand you might also associate under), a fully licensed (outdoor/indoor) cannabis farm based in (location). We sell (hash/cannabis/desolates/edibles) that test at (percent)%. As well as (hash/cannabis/desolates/edibles) that test as high as (percent)% at a flat low rate (name something good about how you grow the bud.)
When are you available for a presentation?
Thank you for your time. Have a nice day.
Write down the cannabis buyer’s name and the presentation date on the spreadsheet. Immediately follow through with emailing your menu to the buyer. Most recommend including in the header Attention: (Buyer Name). If the appointment was not set, go in a few days later and follow through with the person’s script.
In Person:
Hello,
My name is (Name) with (farm), a local (indoor/outdoor) farm. I’m looking for (name of buyer). I’ve sent an email with our menu but haven’t heard back. I wanted to drop off a hard copy in case they never got it. Are they available to talk?
***If they are available, use the phone script.
During your appointment, always look the buyer in the eyes. Open the bag for the buyer and spiel your product. Tell them in what environment the cannabis is grown and what kind of system the grower uses. If they are not interested, ask them why. What are they looking for? Get more information on what is trending in that area and the prices the buyer wants. Avoid getting trapped in exclusive sales rights, selling to only one place in a given area. When you leave your appointment, write down the notes and the follow-up information. Congratulations, you might have made your first sale!
Once a month, or whenever your menu changes, you can send a monthly newsletter about life on the farm, new strands, and trending news.
Here is an example follow up email.
Happy (Holiday)!
(Funny one-liner)
This is (name) the sales representative for (farm), an (location) (indoor-outdoor) farm (follow up with any previously known names). We are happy to introduce our (cannabis) testing at (%)THC. You may also be familiar with our (2nd strand) and (3rd Strand)! We have added (Vape Strand) vape carts and (edibles) to our menu, along with (name of joint) joints. You can check out the grow on Instagram (Instagram link.)
(Insert Menu)
Don’t see the product you’re searching for? We take recommendations! Please reply with the strains and extracts that you would like to see in the future.
You can look forward to our next harvest which will be processed in (month) and will also have (new strand)
Want to book a presentation?
I can’t wait to meet with you. Please email the date and time, and I will confirm promptly. Thank you for allowing us to showcase our top-of-the-line buds (one line that showcases the quality of your bud.)
Little Lost Forest 