Art and yoga make the perfect combo for GCU student

An Orthoptics student has turned her eye to designing t-shirts and tote bags after combining her passion for yoga and art during the pandemic.

Second year student Daniela Phelan has set up by her own Etsy shop showcasing her design talents which have kept her busy over the last few months.

Daniela explained what led to her starting the project. She said: “I’ve always liked art and it’s something I’ve been doing as a hobby for as long as I can remember.

At the start of lockdown I got quite into doing yoga and then decided to combine both interests through Etsy.

I started off by drawing yoga poses using stick men to remind me what to do during practice. It went from there and I played around with other designs and thought other people might find it interesting too.”

As well as being a hobby, Daniela described how it’s also helped her keep a positive mind-set over the last few months.

She said: “Part of the reason for me starting this was because university had finished and I had also been furloughed from my job.

I then moved in with my boyfriend over lockdown and he had started working full-time from home, so I found myself sitting around all day.”

Daniela added: “It was important for me to almost have like a reason to get up in the morning and something to focus on and it was also a nice motivation when people started buying things. It just gave me a good bit of purpose during all this.

I also spend a lot of my time studying and like to be overly prepared for everything, so this is a good way for me to step away from it and not think about coursework.”

You can follow Yoga Art By Dani on Facebook or visit her Etsy page directly

By Ross Clark
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