University Daily Kansan, October 23, 1984
Page 7
Jeph Bilsky. Chicago senior, blows into a 4-foot pipe called a marver. Bilsky is creating an egg-shaped vase.
'Addicting' art form lures students
In an old stone barn on 15th Street, three furnaces blast 2,200-degree heat and emit an cerie orange glow.
Jeph Bisky, wearing a pair of black frame sunglasses, pokes a 4-foot steel pipe, called a marver, into one of the furnaces. On the end of the pipe, small chunks of glass — collectively known as a gather — begin to melt together.
About an hour later, after blowing air into the pipe, reheating the glass and shaping it with various tools, Bilsky, Chicago senior, has produced a simple vase.
The art of glass blowing fascinates Bisky, who is also the president of the KU Glass Club. The "wird substance" of glass seduces him, he said recently.
"Glass doesn't always do what you want it to do," he said.
GLASS BLOWING DEMANDS fast thinking, he said. Even when an artist has an idea for a creation, mistakes can happen. The hot ooze may droop one way when the artist tries it to fall another. But sometimes the mistakes make spectacular pieces of art, he said.
The art of glass blowing, which emerged in the United States in the 1960s, requires a person who takes pains with his craft, Bilsky said.
"I think you really have to want to do it," he said. "It's a lot of work. It also teaches you a lot of patience. A lot of your pieces might end up on the floor."
Bilsky has been creating glass art for about a year. After taking a KU course in ceramics, the related craft of glass blowing attracted him. The art offers Bilsky a constant challenge to experiment with the mysterious substance of glass, he said.
The addiction draws people from a myriad of backgrounds, he said. Students studying fine arts, philosophy and visual communications work side by side, creating practical and artistic pieces in KU's Chamley Barn, the University Printing Service on 15th Street.
"IT'S REALLY addicting." he said.
"They're putting what they know into glass and art," he said of the club's 27 members. The club includes glass blowers and stained glass artists. A glass blowing demonstration
will be put on by the club from 1 to 5 p.m.
Nov. 5 ip front of the Kansas Union.
The club, which began in 1976, sells glass art to keep the program ahead, be said. Glass art is one of the club's specialties.
VERNON BREJCHA, associate professor of design, who coordinates the glass program, said, "We're grossly underfunded. It's an insult. The students are out raising money and bearing the brunt of some of the necessary equipment."
Brecha said the glass program received about $2,000 each year from the University of Kansas. And because of the lack of equipment, he said, some students have transferred to universities with better glass facilities.
But Bisky has stayed with in the program, despite the financial burdens placed on him
Before Bilsky became a fine arts major specializing in glass blowing, he devoted his time to architecture studies, he said.
"It was too structured for me," he said.
"They made it my life for me when I was a framed portrait."
NOW HILLSKY PLANS to go to graduate school to continue his near obsession with gliding.
"It really became an escape for me," he said. "And I really enjoy the freedom of the program, too. It's almost like a little family game." He also said everybody everybody helps everybody."
The marver, with the unfinished vase on the end, is placed in a 2,200-degree furnace. The glass can be heated to about 2,600 degrees.
Bilsky hesitantly said he wanted to make a career of glass blowing. Already, he has taken a businessman's attitude toward his art.
He said he wouldn't mind parting with his favorite works, called "Contemporary Drinks" if a buyer came along. Bilsky referred to the contemporary drinks, which are multi-colored glass versions of beverages, as "crazy" art.
"I'm not attached to my pieces," he said. "I'd rather have people appreciate them than have them around my house cluttering up space."
Story by John Egan
Photos by Larry Weaver
Glass blowing
Bilsky uses water-saturated newspaper to shape a vase. The newspaper method is one of three employed in glass blowing to form a piece.
This piece, which is one of Bilsky's "Contemporary Drink" series, took about two hours to produce. The piece could net Bilsky about $200 in an art gallery.