Local glass blower describes art, future plans

It is an art born of fire, crafted by lungs and perfected with time. For Ryan Hoffman and his team, it is an art they hope to share with others.

The front room of the Volta Glass Studio is typical. Showcases filled with sculptures laced in color line the room. Paintings hang on the gray walls, and Hensen, the loveable mutt, investigates newcomers.

On the far wall there is a window that peers into the workshop, the place where their art is fashioned.

Volta Glass Studio officially made its home on Sixth Street in 2011. Hoffman said business started out slow but has begun to grow. Now that it has picked up, he said he has big plans for the future.

“In time, I would like to generate enough interest to potentially turn it into a school,” Hoffman said. “That would be the grand scheme, to have an Indiana glass blowing school.”

Hoffman’s dream is personal, something he said would be great for Bloomington’s rich cultural diversity.

“I feel like it’s something I didn’t have the opportunity for, and if I can create something like that, I think it would just be a great avenue for people — especially in the Midwest because there is not a fluent glass-blowing community,” he said.

Hoffman said this dream is still 10 to 20 years out, but he has a plan. He said generating interest and building a team capable of teaching is the groundwork for the school.

“I’m training apprentices,” he said. “I have taken on three apprentices in the course of the last few years that work semi-regularly with me.”

Hoffman said he wants to train a team capable of facilitating a school, creating a staff to work with students and run the studio.

His team consists of four apprentices — Trent Young, Ben Belgrad, Andrew Gandersman and Sam Freeman.

Young is the oldest apprentice at Volta with two-and-a-half years under his belt. He worked at a store that bought glass from Hoffman, and when that job fell through, he joined the Volta team.

Although Young has worked with several art mediums, including stain glass and sculpture, he said glass blowing is the most difficult.

“The material is like nothing else on earth,” Young said. “Working with the glass and getting it to do what you intend is very challenging in comparison to other mediums.”

He said the risk involved in working with such a hot material is part of the draw.

“The material demands for you to respect it,” Young said. “It keeps you on your toes. You have to pay attention.”

Andrew Gandersman, another of Hoffman’s apprentices, is in his second year at Volta.
His duties mostly revolve around handwork and helping to teach one of the newer apprentices.

Once an IU student, Gandersman left school in pursuit of glasswork. He said Hoffman was his inspiration.

“It was some of the first really nice work I’d seen,” Gandersman said. “Without even meeting him, his work got me into this.”

Gandersman joined the team and, like Hoffman, grew to love the craft.

“I love the dance,” Gandersman said. “Moving constantly and using my hands every day, shaping things with my bare hands.”

Hoffman said apprentices usually stay a year or two and may be contracted through the studio after to complete pieces.

His first apprenticeship was between 1998 and 2001.

Hoffman began working with glass while he was attending the University of Southern Indiana. His first apprenticeship was under glass artist Dene Stevens.

“He was my first true teacher,” Hoffman said. “I stayed with him for a few years, learning. That’s where I picked up a lot.”

After apprenticing for Stevens, Hoffman traveled to North Carolina where he attended Penland School of Crafts as a student and later a teaching assistant. He credits Penland with giving him a diverse education and becoming the driving force behind his work.

After moving back to Bloomington, Hoffman said most of his work was done through wedding and event planners.

“Individual wedding planners were handling my work and showing it to clientele,” Hoffman said. “That’s where the grandiose idea of the store came from. It was the avenue to directly market to clientele.”

He said creating a venue for the art to be shown allows the Volta team to expand.
The team creates an array of glasswork from items as small as marbles and necklaces to a combustion chamber for Rolls-Royce.

Hoffman said pendants and marbles are making a comeback. Items like these started his love of glass during childhood.

“I’ve always had interest in glass since I was a kid — marbles and things like that, down to the level of toys, that I think prevailed in the end,” Hoffman said. “I’m back in my childhood, in a sense, playing with toys.”

Follow reporter Hannah Fleace on Twitter @HFleace.