The beauty of Ryan Staub’s glass art is mesmerizing. The forms he creates flow gracefully and are vibrant in their luster, reflecting Maui’s nature in ways few other artworks can. Step into his Lahaina studio and be greeted by a dramatic wave full of undulations and peaks, or a shimmering glass mother whale and her calf, suspended before you like small-scale replicas of what swims in the ocean less than a mile down the road. You might also notice the honu (green sea turtle) and octopus suspended in midair on metal designed to resemble coral. These are some of Staub’s signature pieces, which have kept him at the torch for decades.

Hooked since first taking classes as a teenager, Staub laughs when recalling how glass derailed his original career plans. “I guess I’m not going to medical school anymore,” he says he thought once he knew that glass would encompass his life. Still, this master artist executes his designs with the precision of a surgeon and maybe even more schooling than an MD. His chosen path has given him a life of challenge and joy.

Originally from the Seattle area, Staub traveled the world in his early twenties seeking guidance and learning techniques from glass-blowing masters. But Maui’s mana (spiritual energy) brought him to his adopted home. “I came here for the first time in 2000. I saw Bill Worcester (a well-known local artist) was selling glass at an art fair, and I was like, ‘I gotta start a glass studio here. This is the best place on the planet!’ I was 23, had been to 20-something countries, and was like, ‘Maui is the best place ever. There’s nothing that can possibly beat this.”

After more training and travel, Staub cemented his dream in 2017, although things did not go as planned for a while. He set up shop and was forced to close three times in succession. “I shut down seven months [during] COVID, then re-opened for four months. I ran until the pawn shop next to me burnt me down in April 2021. I then moved to Kahului and ended up buying the building [in Lahaina ] I’m in now,” he recalls of life before the tragic Lāhainā fire of 2023. “We had fire right up to the side of the building. We lost some outbuildings and a shipment container burned. I shut down for a year after the fire and re-opened for the private glass lessons in October 2024.”

Undeterred, he’s up and running, teaching and making his one-of-a-kind creations. He says he’ll be a student as long as he has a torch in his hands. “I’ve been doing it for 28 years. I learn new things about the material every time I work with it. It’s the kind of thing you do for five years and you think you know everything about it. Then you do it for ten and start to be humble. And at 20, you realize you’ll never know everything about this material. It’s not possible. It’s just so vast and so counterintuitive. The way it moves is not what you’d expect of it.” 

Most of Staub’s work is inspired by the lifeforms on the shores and in the waters of Maui. He’s excited about a new method which mixes glass and metal to bring a taste of the undersea world to people’s homes. “I’ve recently been doing these steel sculptures where it comes off the wall and has critters on it. It’s a steel structure inspired by black coral. We weld bronze onto it, so it’s got thousands of bronze welds. We paint the whole thing black, burnish it to reveal the bronze and wax it for the final finish.” He also makes light sconces in this manner.

Respect for an international icon led Staub to expand his body of work in a departure from the sea. What he calls “Elio vessels” are only available in this unique gallery in Lahaina, in honor of the master Murano glass artist Elio Quarisa.  “At age 88, he taught us a technique and said, ‘This is my technique, please don’t use it.’ I waited about ten years until he passed and realized, ‘You know, I should do that as an homage to Elio—to keep that alive.’ What we’re doing is a 2,000-year-old oral tradition. The knowledge and the skill sets get passed down from person to person. It’s not something you can read a book on and learn how to do. It’s thousands and thousands of hours of experience.” 

Private lessons with Ryan Staub are available for locals and visitors, ensuring you will experience the thrill of working with hot glass. You’ll also leave with a cherished possession too special to be called a souvenir.  “It allows people to bring home a little piece of being here. When they’re sitting inside in the rain, the dark and snow, it brings people back to the experience of swimming with turtles in our waters or watching whales breach or whatever fantastical experience they’ve had here.”

Moana Glass, 1203 Keawe Street, Lahaina; (808) 763-6338; Visit moanaglass.com for more information on available pieces, gallery visits, or to reserve a private lesson with Ryan Staub.