The Art of Living Glass

by Tracy Marshall & Rachel Brookes Finlay

“Tracy, you just HAVE to come and look at this!” Rachel exclaimed, beckoning me towards a stall at the Gaucin Art and Craft Fair. “Isn’t it magical?” I had to agree, I’d never seen such unusual and enchanting glasswork — wonderful quirky creations of colour and light, a feast for the eyes, crafted with such imagination as to transport one instantly to another world, a fairy land.

Tami, half of the “Arte en Vidrio” husband and wife team, was happy to answer our questions, and informed us that she and her husband Dani worked on the same pieces together, and have shared many past lives. We inquired about custom made windows and Tami explained that she reads the energy of the people who commission special projects.

Naturally, I was intrigued, and wanted to know more. What is the secret when people love their work so much that they do it for fun? The wondrous energy of fun emanating from the glasswork was palpable. Tami agreed to an interview for Wisp ezine, and we arranged to meet her in her apartment in Torremolinos.

Tami and Dani’s glasswork is never symmetrical, so it was a surprise to find that they live in a very symmetrical apartment block, in the middle of a busy city.

“I know I look like I should live in the country,” Tami said with a smile, “But I love the city, I love the energy and the people.”

The apartment was full to the ceiling with enchanting glass concoctions, and broken vases, and all manner of objects that may be incorporated into the creations. Dani showed me one piece with a combination of blue Delft china and dark blue glass, saying how much he loved that dark blue colour. Tami told us that they have a friend with an antique shop who gives them any broken china or glass objects, and remarked that even if a valuable piece of china is broken, it is still beautiful incorporated into one of their designs.

Tami started off as a teacher of art, and Dani as a graphic designer. They often work together on the same painting, as well as working together on the glass items. They love what they do passionately, and never consider it to be work. All day, every day, they create their delightful pieces, simply because that is what they enjoy doing most.

Q: When did you start working together?

Tami: It started when we were in kindergarten, biting each other! Then we met again in high school. My trousers were covered in sketches, which was forbidden then, and we went to movies together, and then we got married. We have always worked together, and painted together on the same paintings.

We were looking for another dimension, to make something else, and we discovered the glass, which I love, and also the metal, which I love. We have plans for the future, to make other things. My plan is to work with a sculptor who works with nets and wire, at least for four months to learn everything, a new avenue.

As well we want to start plating natural things, leaves and natural things to covert them into jewellery, and add them to our glasswork.

Q: Will you stop selling the glass at the art fairs?

Tami: No! We love it, we love it! Not just selling the things, but we love the contact with the people. Even if I was a millionaire, I would still go to the markets, I love it, we both love it, connecting with the people.

Tami, who channels using automatic writing, explains about Dani’s communications with several entities.

Q: When Dani channels, does he trance channel or is it automatic writing?

Tami: No, mine is automatic writing; he uses another way with some ceremonies of water and light. He goes out of body, knows everything, and then comes back.

Q: Does he write any of it down?

Tami: No he tells me, and I remember it all. I believe in angels, I work with them. They give me designs, I know them by the designs. I know exactly which one is which! The personality, the style, the colours… When I’m working I’m floating and asking “Which one comes now?” When I start, I place many pieces of glass and whatnot in front of me, and then it goes automatically. I meditate a lot so I can clear my mind and stop thinking, and then, it comes. Intuition, you have to believe in it, listen to it, develop it all the time. You get a lot of power, not a power to control because controlling is absolutely bad, therefore we don’t believe in a main religion, because it’s a way of controlling. I believe in just one belief, to go down the main road and see the light.

Life is simple, we complicate it. If you just desire something, then you will get it, because you leave the desire to the universe, and you will get it when the time is right. It’s a simple way. The law of attraction. It’s not a matter of what you deserve, if you think in positive ways you will attract it. You will see how simple it goes! Every time I come home I have a parking space! And every time I say thank you. All the time we’re thinking of the upside and downside and feeling like a victim of life, but we are not victims!

I’m so glad that I was born an Israeli, this is the main thing that leads me to my belief. I’m always asking questions and looking for answers, and the Kabbalah is full of light, and so many answers, it is amazing. I am connected to the centre online and every day I get the answers to my big questions, it’s like it’s written to me! But you have to be open, and to accept that there is god, there is light, there is love, you have just to use it, and just spread it, because people are so closed and shrunken. There are so many ideas and so many views, you can’t change a lot but your own surroundings, and it is like throwing a stone into water — it ripples. Like you now, you start thinking about what I’m saying. You know it from the inside, and then you’ll speak to someone else and so on.

Q: When you meet people do you instantly get a sense that you’ve known them before?

Tami: Yes! Sometimes it’s embarrassing because I’m so like “Oh hi!” and you feel the love and the bond, and sometimes they don’t know. My daughter, for sure is part of my soul. For sure, for sure. Like my mother, father, like my brother, I know all the relevant parts we had before in other lives together and it helps, it helps to communicate now, and to help complete karma.

We have three adopted children, one of them is very spiritual. She is amazing, and she channels too, and always has the answers. I feel so glad to have her, she’s like a part of my incarnation, to finish my karma. It’s amazing how it comes. She’s deep like I don’t know, I can’t find the bottom of her.

It’s a way of living. You have to accept it like part of your existence. When you start getting to know people who are transmitting on your level of energy, you flow together, it’s really amazing, and that’s why I will never stop doing the markets, because I love meeting people. The people who don’t approach me, it doesn’t matter, it’s not the same energy. It’s like turning on the radio, you adjust the frequency and tune in.

A long time ago my uncle died and I got together with him “outside” and he told me that he wanted to talk to his son. I asked him “How do you want to talk to him, maybe he doesn’t know how” and he said “It’s so easy! You pick up the phone” he said, in words I remember so well, “And you dial with the intention of connecting with someone, and it is exactly the same if you want to connect to someone “outside”. You just pick up the phone and you talk to him.” After Dani’s grandmother died — he was very close to her — one night he picked up the phone and heard her voice, and talked to her. There are stories like this all over the world, you just have to let yourself.

Don’t ever say no! Because no doesn’t exist in the universe, and it goes over the no, doesn’t understand the no. If you say “I don’t want,” get rid of the no, and it’s “I do want it,” and then you get it as a punch!

Q: You get what you focus on…

Tami: Yes! If you say I don’t want to get a cold, and you get a cold, if you take the no out, it’s like saying I want a cold. We got so many punches all over us, we had to look for the reason why, and I got so many answers for the why from myself, inside, from me, and from the angels that are always around me.

We are fed up with the religions, fed up with the violence… What next, what next? And the next is simplicity. Simplicity is the answer.

Q: What is your favourite piece?

Tami: My husband!