Abby Leon, Paradigm Gallery Director
Fort Wayne native, Eran Park is a glass artist and founder of The Glass Park. Captivated at a young age by the mesmerizing alchemy of molten glass, Eran pursued a lifelong career in fire and form. His artistic trajectory was influenced by close connections to the Chihuly glass movement in the early 2000s while living and working in the Pacific Northwest. This inspired him to bring that same high-caliber artistic energy back to Fort Wayne. Since establishing his hot shop in 2012, Eran has dedicated himself to both creating striking custom glasswork and building a community where artists and students learn. Eran’s grassroots dedication to the art form directly mirrors the grand-scale vision of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. While the FWMoA showcases one of the largest glass art collections in the Midwest (Including Eran’s work in the Paradigm Gallery), Eran provides the essential hands-on bridge that connects the public to the physical craft. At The Glass Park, he demystifies the intense, high-heat process, offering furnace and torch work classes that invite everyday people to step up to the fire and shape their own art. Through education, mentorship and a relentless creative drive, Eran is ensuring the Midwest isn’t just a place where glass art is preserved and admired, but where it is actively born. In this Let’s Talk SHOP, Eran shares a behind the scenes look at the ancient, illuminating, and slightly addictive art of glassblowing.
EP: I started blowing glass in 1999 and haven’t stopped since. My passion for glass started when I was just 8 years old and my mom gave me a beautifully crafted glass snake. After seeing glass melt for the first time, I was hooked and pursued any and all knowledge I could and continue to do so to this day. The Glass Park was opened to accommodate the need to bring in master glassblowers to teach intensive classes to eager up and coming glass artists in the Midwest. There are few places to learn this amazing craft. The Glass Park has become one of the best public glass studios in the Midwest, filling a much-needed void. Since opening, The Glass Park has hosted classes with some of the world’s most respected glass artists while also offering beginner classes to anyone and everyone that wants to experience this magical medium.
Click the arrows on the images to see the step-by-step process of making a glass pumpkin!
- Gather molten glass on a steel pipe out of the furnace, where it is roughly 2200 to 2500 degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature the glass consistency is like honey. This is called the gather.
- Press the gather into crushed colored glass to add color.
- “Boop” the bottom of the gather into the color to add color to the bottom of the pumpkin.
- Melt the colors into the gather so that you can smooth the piece and clean up the shape.
5. Smooth and shape the gather on a steel table called a marver using angles and pressure.
6. Putting pressure on the tip and spinning continuously in one direction will swirl the colors.
7. Make a bubble by adding air pressure until the bubble emerges from the pipe.
8. Cool the bubble down so a second gather can be made on top of it.
9. Hit the gong with the gather to make sure it’s hard enough to withstand the heat of being dipped into the pot of molten glass for a secondary gather.
10. Do another gather. Now we have enough glass for the body of a pumpkin.
11. Reheat the first gather.
12. Using angles and pressure and the marver, we will shape the glass and get it the proper temperature for the optic mold, which gives the pumpkin its signature shape.
13. Air pressure is added to make the bubble the right size for the optic mold.
14. The bubble is heated one last time — as hot as possible — before using optic mold.
15. Place the hot bubble into the optic mold and blow to force the glass into the crevices.
16. Pull it out of the optic mold and smile!
17. Heat the pumpkin.
18. Pinch a constriction called a neckline just off the pipe. This must be the most fragile spot so that you can remove it from the pipe when and where you want.
19. Add air pressure to make the pumpkin bigger and flatten the bottom to make it more pumpkin-y.
20. Cut it off the pipe using scissors.
21. Push the top in to make the top more pumpkin-y.
22. Gather more glass to make the vine.
23. Add crushed color.
24. Melt in the color.
25. Dip the hot glass into another optic mold.
26. Smoosh the glass into all of the crevices.
27. Press it onto the pumpkin.
28. Stretch the glass and twist upward.
29. Twist it around some tweezers.
30. Attach the twisted vine to the pumpkin.
31. Cut the vine from the pipe with scissors.
32. Torch the cut tip so that it’s not sharp.
33. Rush the pumpkin to a kiln, which is kept at 900 degrees Fahrenheit until we are ready to slowly cool it down.
It takes 15 hours for the pumpkin to cool and for the final colors to appear.
You can find Eran’s pumpkins ($50/$95) and a variety of other work including flowers, mushrooms, and ornaments for sale in the Paradigm Gallery! Tuesday-Saturday 10am-6pm; Thursday 10am-8pm; Sunday 12pm-5pm
Also be sure to check out The Glass Park! 4235 Fairfield Avenue, Fort Wayne, IN 46807, 260-579-7930. Eran offers hands on private and group classes 7 days a week, and has made his studio a beginner-friendly space where participants can craft their own pieces and keep what they create.