Ronald Schuster

Ron Schuster began making stained and blown glass creations in the early 1970s. After he made sun catchers that a friend sold for him on consignment, Ron and his wife moved to Brown County, opened a studio and gallery, and turned his hobby into a career. Sweetwater Gallery has been creating custom glass work ever since.

The colors and shapes Ron uses in his multilayered paperweights give them a matchless appearance.

To achieve his unique designs, he gathers clear glass from the furnace with a punty rod, combines this with colored glass, and shapes the finished piece with a wooden block. He often uses glass coated with exotic metals as the core of his creations. He also creates all original glass patterns and has designed more than 400 over the years.

“After close to 40 years I still love the material,” Ron says. “It’s so many things all in one — the colors, the way it can bend and filter light, the shapes, organic or mechanical. I can shape it, blow it, grind and polish it. It feeds the imagination with all the possibilities.”

While the material inspires Ron, he’s also been influenced by his isolation from other glass artists.

Ron hopes Indiana Artisan will help him extend his career into retirement and provide marketing opportunities that allow him to work solely from his studio.

“We represent the best in our fields the state has to offer,” Ron says of Indiana Artisan. “To have this recognized does much to reaffirm a feeling of success.”