BREAKING AWAY: Handcrafted Glass From Short Mountain

Tom Fuhrman shows me a Sotheby’s Auction catalog from a huge stack in his office. To him, a lot of this stuff is junk, but to people who are now snapping them up on eBay, they’re gold.

The catalogues show detailed high resolution color photos of glass works that made their way through the auction house in the 1980s. It’s just a taste of the stuff he’s sifting through as he boxes up what he’s taking with him.

Tom has been in the glass making business for about 11 years now, many more years before that as a hobby. His studio on Short Mountain in Woodbury, TN reflects years of hard work, but at 63 he’s now slowly packing things up and moving to Oak Ridge.

That’s where his son’s family now lives, and Tom has already found a place to set up shop adjacent to an antique store where he’s sure to get more foot traffic. He figures he should be completely set up in a couple of months.

See the complete story and more photos at Christian Grantham blog at www.christiangrantham.com and Follow Christian Grantham on twitter at http://twitter.com/grantham