Brenna Baker

Artist / Founder

Brenna Baker is the Founder and Artist of Hollywood Hot Glass. She began her career as a glass artist in Corning, NY at the young age of 14. Learning the technical and aesthetic foundations of glass in Corning inspired her to live out her life's dream of becoming an independent glass artist. The next few years she spent working under many talented glass artists all over the US while simultaneously studying business. She then continued her career on to the island of Murano, Italy where she spent one year working under Maestro Pino Signoretto, commonly known as the world’s greatest glass sculptor. She then continued traveling the world creating her work for an audience on cruise ships with the Hot Glass Show before becoming the youngest Master Gaffer and only the second female gaffer ever employed by Steuben Glass. Brenna also gained knowledge and expertise in taking classes and teaching through The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass.

Brenna founded HOLLYWOOD HOT GLASS on June 7th, 2013.

In 2018 Hollywood Hot Glass partnered with Celebrity Cruises to bring the glass making experience onboard the Celebrity Solstice, Equinox and Eclipse. Located on the top deck of each ship is a beautiful glassblowing studio surrounded by a half acre of real grass looking out over the world. Through Brenna's Hot Glass Class program guests traveling with Celebrity now have the opportunity to sign up and make a beautiful piece of glass art themselves!

"Thanks to our amazing teams, I am extremely grateful to have the opportunity to share our passion every day with so many people all over the world. It is a true honor to witness the joy the glass making experience brings everyone and is by far the most rewarding part of my career today. Their happiness inspires my creativity and I hope, through our program, we can do the same in return."

WATCH BRENNA ON SEASON 3 OF NETFLIX'S HIT SHOW BLOWN AWAY, STREAMING NOW!

Christina Black

Director of Operations & Human Resources

Christina Black is the Director of Operations & Human Resources at Hollywood Hot Glass. Christina moved to South Florida five years ago from Maine where she grew up. She graduated with her MBA in Human Resources in 2020.

Growing up, Christina's mother was a sculptor. She attended gallery openings and spent time playing in her mother's studio as a child. Christina lives in Fort Lauderdale with her husband Evan, their daughter Shiloh, and their two Pugs, Betty and Rosie. When she isn’t at work, she likes spending time with her family or enjoying a good book by the pool or at the beach.

Allison Bloom

Artist

Allison Bloom is a Chicago native and has been blowing glass since 2013. At the prodding of a beloved teacher, Bloom participated in an internship with a local glass artist that sparked her passion for the craft and drove her to seek a career in glass art.

Whilst pursuing a bachelor degree in psychology at Kent State University, Bloom studied under various artists at studios The Glass Asylum and The Glass Bubble Project in Cleveland, Ohio, where she continued to work for a number of years.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloom was asked to join the non-profit Mansfield Art Center as Co-Director of Blown Glass, where she focused on providing accessible art education and experience to underprivileged youth.

Currently, Bloom is happily home at Hollywood Hot Glass in Hollywood, Florida, where she spends her days joyfully teaching classes to students young and old, and trying to challenge herself in the hotshop. Bloom’s work combines traditional form and bitwork with sculpture, engraving, and absurdist themes.

Follow Allison on Instagram @BloomBlownGlass

Jackie Zona

Artist

With a nervous breath and a too hard thwap on the pipe, Jackie Zona had just successfully ‘knocked off’ her first cup. It was wonky, wobbly, and unusable since a chunk of the bottom stayed on the pipe but she didn’t care. She had just fallen in love! It was 2016 and Jackie had caught a ‘bug’ that would change her life. The glass bug. After nearly a decade that passion hasn’t faded a bit.

Since graduating with a degree in Studio Art from Bowling Green State University in 2021, Jackie has been lucky enough to be working as a full-time artist. She has shown work at the Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery and received the Craig A. Schnuth Memorial Glass Award for her work in the 2017 Undergraduate Exhibition. While at BGSU, she studied a variety of mediums with a focus in hot glass. The influence of this wide range of study can be seen in her play with different materials. Much of her work is experimental, pushing the limits of materials and testing how they interact with one another.

Phillip Oechsle

Artist

Whether it be through art, music, literature, or aesthetic design, I have always held excitement for the process of creation and artistic expression...

I achieved a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from Ball State University in 2023. During my time in college, I gathered many useful skills and knowledge in getting to know and understand people for who they are and the factors that influence their sense of self and identity. Prior to discovering glass, I had focused on aspects of music and musical expression within my anthropological research. I have played piano my whole life and have found it to be a deeply useful tool in order to express myself. The intersections between that plane of ethereal bliss and culture are what intrigues me.

I found glass entirely by chance. Upon signing up for an introductory course to fill an elective spot, I instantly fell in love with glassblowing in the year of 2020. I caught the "glass bug" as my professor called it, and have decided to turn this newfound passion into a career!

Ethan Ball

Artist

Ethan was born in the beautiful state of Indiana, where his father encouraged him to be creative and work with his hands. From a young age he worked in his fathers machine shop, engineering creative solutions with various metals to extreme detail. His journey into the world of glassblowing began as a hobby during his college years at Ball State University. His background in metals translated in some ways to glass, making the medium more attractive to him. Throughout his time at the university, Ethan steadily refined his glassblowing skills, gradually realizing that a career in glass held more allure than one in business.

After graduating, he embarked on a career aboard Celebrity Cruises, where he shares his love for glass with enthusiastic guests. Having spent several years working with hot glass, Ethan's favorite aspect of his job is witnessing the awe and excitement of guests when they find out they can experience making their own piece. “Most of the guests we see have never been this close to hot glass before, so seeing their reaction the first time they manipulate the glass just never gets old!”

Kayla Sanford

Ship Manager / Artist

Kayla Sanford is a glass artist from Bedford OH, 15 miles south from Cleveland. She considers herself an opportunist excited by material exploration. Kayla began her glass career after enrolling at the Cleveland Institute of Art to study animation 2017. She became interested in glass after taking an open studio workshop, later switching into the medium her Junior year. Kayla received her Bachelors in Glass from the Institute in May 2021 and has gone on to receive several scholarships including Furhmeyer Art Award as well as the Traveling Scholarship Nomination '21 (Top 20). Her work has also been exhibited in CIA’s 73rd and 75th Student Independent Exhibition, The 2019 Black Scholars and Artist Showcase as well as CIA’s first Junior Exhibition titled Antiquity, Now.

Kayla is inspired by the fluidity of glass and relates the material to aspects of the human existence; from its ability to change within moments to its rigidity and fragility. The material captures the duality within ourselves. She believes that one’s potential becomes more apparent when given an opportunity to challenge the normalities of their life. This is due to the endless potential that people have within. In her BFA exhibition, Kayla examined the importance of creating new connections between ones self with others as they lead to the development of our communities through the merging of cultures. Her work focused on concepts such as "WE vs ME" and emphasized the importance of building new relationships as it leads to growth and innovation. Kayla is excited to work on Celebrity Cruise Lines for the chance to work and meet people internationally.

Jessica Jarriel

Artist

Jessica Jarriel is an American glassblower who got her start 4 years ago. Jessica is a college graduate with a BFA in Glassblowing from Georgia Southwestern State University. She has exhibited work at Georgia Southwestern and the Huss Foundation Gallery in Americus, Georgia.

Her first solo exhibition was exhibited at Georgia Southwestern in 2018. Her most recent body of work focuses on ideas surrounding perceptions and interpretations of current events. Jessica creates vessels that are skewed and often unusable, creating in her work an unstable feeling.

She recently moved to South Florida from Georgia to teach and create at Hollywood Hot Glass. She is passionate about sharing the art of glass-blowing with the community.

Seth Hendrick

Ship Manager

Seth has been blowing glass for 15 years. He was introduced to glassblowing at Sunspots Studios in the small town of Staunton, Virginia, located in the Shenandoah Valley. He took a coppersmith job at Sunspots Studios with the apprenticeship of glassblowing under owner Doug Sheridan and resident artist Daniel Scogna (MFA). Seth slowly learned the craft of blowing glass over the course of five years in a production setting. He then took a full time job glass blowing for Sunspots Studios and started producing glass for himself under M. Seth Hendrick Glass. He has also produced glass for Romeo Glass and is very grateful and excited to work for Hollywood Hot Glass and their Hot Glass Class at Sea program with Celebrity Cruises.

Seth values creativity in all forms of life and art. He grew up surrounded by musicians and artists and was naturally drawn to them. Playing music and writing with friends was a favorite past time. Once introduced to glass, he was fascinated by the heat and movement, when you could capture the fluidity in time into a work of art. His main influences are that of nature both seen and unseen, the waters of the earth, and the universe. He enjoys hiking and running and will often try to display a landscape seen or thought of in those pursuits.

Aric Waldman

Artist

Aric graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor’s degree in Art Theory and Practice, and later attended classes at Pilchuck Glass School to work with glass and further his education in the medium. He was first introduced to glass as a young child at a hot shop demonstration, where he was immediately captivated by the smell of the hot shop and the spectacle of the transforming molten material. Shortly thereafter, and with a newly ignited passion for art, he sought out a hot shop to begin learning the craft from a local glass artist.

As an artist, Aric is unbound by a single medium. He often allows his work to take whatever form is necessary, be it sculptural, performative, written, illustrative, or anything in between. Acknowledging that the way people ultimately engage with and experience art is beyond the artist’s control, Aric is driven to create works that make people “feel.” He approaches each piece on the most fundamental level, allowing space for people to continuously bring their own experiences, past and present, to his work. His pieces often explore relationships between who we are, who we were, and where we are going.

Joe Falzone

Artist

Joseph Falzone first discovered his love of glass at the young age of eighteen. Having been an artist his entire life, he was no stranger to the creative process. However, it wasn't until he was exposed to glass that he truly felt like he could express himself through art. After his first glassblowing experience at the University of Wisconsin River Falls, he knew this was the medium he had been looking for.

Joe continued his glass education at Penland school of crafts. He had the opportunity to study under an established glass artist and get a first hand look into the professional world of glass art. He went on to earn his BFA degree at Southern Illinois University where he perfected his technical skills and learned about the many different styles and traditions in blown glass. He also studied overseas, at Abate Zanetti in Murano, Italy.

Currently, Joe enjoys traveling and teaching, finding inspiration for his work from the places he visits, and from the enthusiasm of his students.

James Downey

Ship Manager/Artist

James grew up in northern Wisconsin and developed a passion for craft and art at a young age working with his father in construction and spending a lot of time drawing. He went on to study Visual Arts at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, where he discovered glass as a medium and was immediately hooked. In 2014, he received a BFA in Sculpture, with an emphasis in glass and a minor in philosophy.

Developing a love for teaching while at school, he moved to Washington where he began teaching at Tacoma’s Hilltop Artists in Residence, a unique youth glass art enrichment program. Here he spent an invaluable six years learning as a mentor, teacher, and tech. In 2021, the Turner Center for the Arts, a public art center in South Georgia, hired James to build a glass art studio for them, where he was manager for over two years. He is now excited to work for Hollywood Hot Glass on Celebrity Cruises and work with people from around the world.

James enjoys working with multiple materials, interested by the individual qualities they possess and how these may determine our interaction with them. They each influence form and function differently and can evoke an array of emotions. He is drawn to glassmaking because of the medium’s unique process of shaping whilst cooling from a molten state and what this can capture and convey.

Aaron Beck

Artist

Aaron Beck is a glass artist from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. He first discovered his love of glass at the age of nine when his parents took him to The National Glass Center in Sunderland, England. It was here where he watched an artist blow a goblet and his fascination with the material was born. He then went on to obtain a Bachelors and Masters degree in Glass Blowing from the University of Sunderland. Aaron's work is heavily influenced by fantasy and sci-if elements as to blend his many passions into a cohesive body of work.

Erin Nelson

Artist

Erin was drawn to glass at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She was an accounting major looking for a fun class to take and stumbled upon glass blowing in the course catalog. She fell in love with the process immediately and enjoyed that she could create something unique in a relatively short amount of time. Perfect for Christmas presents.

After graduating with her accounting degree, she started working at the Corning Museum of Glass. During her 3 years there she taught small classes with beginners, assisted independent artists, and helped as a technician.

She enjoys the mental aspect of glass. It forces her to clear her mind, stay calm under pressure, and problem solve. She has been striving to perfect simple shapes and designs and is excited to experiment with new color techniques.

When she is not in the hot shop she enjoys rock climbing, driving her 1980 Puch moped, and hanging out with friends and their puppies.

She is joining the Hollywood Hot Glass team to teach classes on Celebrity cruise ships. She is excited to meet people and introduce them to the magic of glass.

William Ryan Mell

Artist

William ‘Ryan’ Mell was born and raised in Northern Minnesota where much of his time was spent outdoors, climbing trees or tinkering around the garage with his Grandpa. In 2011 he attended the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point where his creative passions became focused on Glassblowing and Analog Photography. Often finding conversation between the two media, Ryan likes to create works that allow the viewer to ‘disconnect’ from reality and question their own understanding of the world around them. Other passions in glass include whimsical sculptural work, medieval weaponry, and flying by the seat of his pants.

In his free time you’ll find him hunting, fishing, or just lazing around with his dog.

Emmy Sivira

Ship Manager / Artist

Emmy Sivira was born in Caracas, Venezuela and moved to New Jersey at the age of 12. There was a language barrier when she first arrived in the United States. Since then, Emmy has been drawn to the arts; she finds it easier to communicate visually rather than through words. As a result, she decided to attend Syracuse University as a painting major, but was soon introduced to glass and decided to make that a priority. After graduation, she moved to Maine to pursue a career in borosilicate glass as an apprentice.

Two years later, Emmy took her first gather at the Corning Museum of Glass after an instructor saw how captivated she was by a demonstration. Since then, she has focused mainly on soft glass. She travels around the world taking classes from many talented artists, mostly on sculpting.

Her work highlights semantics: internalism vs. externalism. The struggle of learning a new language forces Emmy to rely on body language and other cues to understand people around her. She quickly realized that people do not always say what they mean, or do not fully open up. Emmy hopes that through her art, she will inspire people to break the barriers of language and express themselves freely.

Heather Clancy

Ship Manager/Artist

Heather was raised working on farms in Ohio before moving to attend the Cleveland Institute of Art. With the initial intent of studying animation, she soon found that stories could just as easily be told using glass as a material. She graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Glass and moved on to complete the Tech Apprenticeship at the Pittsburgh Glass Center the following year.

The subject of her work revolves around the changing built environment. This interest stems from observing the urban environments she often inhabits as an adult in contrast to her own rural upbringings. Through the reference of aged locations and objects, she works to create a platform for discussion of personal memory and passing time.

Andrew Lombardo

Artist

Andrew Lombardo is a Business Consultant for Hollywood Hot Glass INC. as well as a part time artist.

Andrew holds a bachelor's degree in Paper Science and Engineering, along with master's degrees in both Business Administration, concentrating in business policy and strategic management, as well as Applied Physics with a concentration in Nanotechnology and Material Science.

As the Business Consultant, Andrew helps with various tasks throughout the business as needed and can be seen in the shop random evenings doing demonstrations in glass blowing. His passion for creating started at a young age with music, learning to play the piano as well as guitar at an early age, and has spread to other works such as painting, woodworking, wood turning, digital art, science writing, photography and now glassblowing. Andrew has been blowing glass and working with Hollywood Hot Glass INC. since January of 2016 and is passionate about the business and spreading the love of blowing glass to the community and the world.

His personal portfolio can be seen here: www.awltiedup.com.

Joshua Lynch

Artist

Joshua Lynch began his glass journey in Atlanta, Georgia where he grew up. He was first introduced to the process of glass blowing through his entrepreneurial ventures as the owner of his first business, a T-Shirt/Design company, alongside his childhood friends. Wanting more, he soon founded a brick & mortar location in 2011 for his new idea for a business… Glass Objects.

Glass Objects was the only place of it’s kind in Atlanta and became a southeastern hub of Flameworking classes from some of the most well known artists in the world of Borosilicate glass. Through his studio, he was able to connect with most of the other glass artists in the state and eventually found himself in the Hot Shop studio of Decatur Glassworks where he first learned soft glass. He spent the next 7-8 years taking as many classes as possible and attending events all over the world to broaden his understanding of the industry. In 2018, Josh had a unique opportunity to join the Film/Television Industry and began building and painting sets for the next 5 years.

With a recent move to South Florida to be closer to family, Josh visited the glass studios nearest to him in hopes to become a part of the local glass community. He was immediately welcomed by Benzaiten Center for the Arts followed by Hollywood Hot Glass. Through this community, he was able to prove his interest and passion for hot glass which lead him on board with Celebrity Cruises!