Meet Tom Fuhrman!
by Tanya Layton
Every so often, you get to meet a dragon who will share their story, I was recently lucky enough to do just that, even if only virtually. Someday I want to meet this very wise and experienced dragon face to face.
Tom Fuhrman developed an affinity for glass at the tender age of ten. He purchased a glass paperweight (that was cracked) and fell in love with glassl. In the 1950’s he visited several studios with his parents including Corning.
He attended a few glassy get togethers during the studio glass movement in Toledo, Ohio. When it was time to choose a college program, he chose the Illinois Institute of Technology majoring in Product Design. This was the American spinoff of the Bauhaus movement that had begun in Germany.
Following college, Tom designed radio and TV cabinets for Magnavox, pottery and ceramic dinnerware for Pfaltzgraff Pottery. He became Director of Design for Triangle Home Products, a manufacturer of lighting and ventilation equipment with six factories in the U.S. Eventually he became a self employed manufacturer’s representative for companies that supplied metal spinning, stamping, die casting and wood turning for the lighting industry.
In 1974 he took his first glass blowing workshop, a 16 week course with the Toledo Museum of Art. Then he bought his first torch-a National 3A. He raised a family with his wife and became a scout leader, PTO President, baseball and basketball coach. Family vacations were planned around glass studios and factories.
In the 80’s he set up his first studio on his property in Indiana. It included a glass furnace, annealer and glory hole. Soon he was teaching classes through the continuing education program at Indiana’s Purdue University, including blowing and fusing and doing a few shows.
He accumulated 40,000 lbs of glass molds and side lever presses, eventually he bought a warehouse of glass about 15 to 20 Semi loads. Eventually he narrowed that purchase to about 3 loads. He had lots of colorful cullet for a long time.
During the 90s he became a Teaching Assistant at Purdue. He made glass on nights and weekends and started doing business with several shops and galleries while working in fused, slumped, flameworked, furnace worked and stained glass. Tom tried to get the University to add a glass program to the curriculum but it never came to pass despite his countless hours of effort. Tom attended the International Symposium of Glass in Novy Bor , Czech Republic in 1997. Vaclav Cigler and Mark Peiser are two of his favorite glass artists.
Watching artists like Loren Stump, Paul Stankard and Roger Parramore influenced his own work. He experimented with cold glass fusing, lamination and large sculptures from recycled bottles. He had several shows in galleries in the Midwest. He has a piece in the permanent collection of the White House and was featured on a photo brochure for the white House Christmas tree.
He sold his business in 1998 and moved to the Tennessee hills where he made more glass sculptures, including a 2300 lb sculpture for the Hospital Corporation of America, and a set of 4 fountains for the Frist Museum in Nashville. He also did the windows for over 14 churches and was doing as many as 15 shows a year in the South and Midwest. Southern Living featured him in an article.
In 2009 he and his wife of 44 years, moved to Knoxville and he spent much of the time traveling for her job as a craft instructor for Holland America Cruise Lines Travel has been my passion and it’s “killing” me not being able to go anywhere in the last year, we were initially scheduled for an 80 day cruise going all around Africa this last October but naturally was cancelled.
Regarding the travel, he says “I’m glad we did it when we did because who knows when it will be possible again.”
Tom moved to Florida in 2020 and has downsized significantly. He still has a torchworking setup and a small fusing kiln. He says his glass journey is getting narrower, but he is trying to help others who can pick up the “ball” and run with it. Tom and his wife have two children and six grandchildren. Tom is a collector of postcards, stamps, matchbooks, and paperweights.( He still has his first one.) Occasionally he likes to cook.
Find Tom on Facebook as Fuhrman Glass, and watch an interview with him at his glass stuio on Youtube.