Tom Philabaum Art Glass Vase from "Handbuilt" Series, 1987

Art glass vase by Tom Philabaum from his "Handbuilt" series, circa 1987.

Tom Philabaum received a B.A. in Art and Education from Southern Illinois University in 1969, and then joined the innovative Glass Program at the University of Wisconsin studying under Harvey Littleton. He completed a Master’s degree in 1973 before moving to Tucson, where he built his own glass-blowing studio, and earned an M.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Arizona. He has been a working artist since that time, as well as starting Philabaum Glass Gallery in 1982, where he has curated exhibitions ever since.


Handbuilt Series 1987 – 2007

This series was born out of Tom’s long time interest in hand-building with clay. “I wanted to break from the traditional method of blowing molten glass.” The result was “hand-building” large vessel forms with hot glass slabs and later, with hot coils. The construction of one of the sculptures consisted of a sweaty drama involving Philabaum, thirty pounds of molten glass, and six assistants. The difficulty of maintaining consistent heat throughout the piece as it grew larger was one of the major challenges. The Temple Series and later the Canasta (Sp. for “basket”) Series are all derivatives of the Handbuilt Series.