Sol Maya, a Canadian citizen of Native American, Mayan ancestry, was studying ceramics, sculpting and print making at Santa Barbara City College , in California in 1980.

Between classes he'd watch the glass blowers working the glass. The more he watched, the more he fell in love with this art form. The spontaneity of working with glass intrigued him.

He started spending more time in the studio, until one day he tried his hand at it and he's never looked back. Sol eventually became responsible for the running of the glass studio at the college, a position he held for several years.

Active in the local Santa Barbara art scene, Sol founded "Art for Life", an annual event involving as many as 250 local artists.

Sol moved from Santa Barbara to Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada in 1992. He worked for several yeayears with Elder master glass blower, David New-Small at his studio on Granville Island , before he and his wifwife and partner Gwen, built their own studio in 2001.