About Glass
From George -
I have had a few chapters in my life and career with glass. Making Marbles and working my lampworking torch have carried me through most of that time.
Have a look at my current work and work of the recent past here on my site for sale. Read on for some more information about some of my past work and experience.
The concept of melting glass and glassblowing was spellbinding to me as a young boy while watching craftsman at; Henry Ford Village, MI , Cedar Point Park, OH, and Williamsburg, WV. I had a toy chemistry set, and spent many hours melting the glass tubes and rods over the little alcohol lamp. Later, while studying chemistry at college, I became involved as a lab preparation student and teaching assistant and worked at technical glassblowing. It was during this time my Father taught me in the basics of stained glass window construction.
When moving from Michigan to Wisconsin for continue my education, I began making stained glass and street vending in Madison on State Street, and adjacent to the Dane County Farmers Markets on the Capitol Square. I opened a stained glass and wood art studio a short time after that, and by the following year had expanded to a stained glass supply shop as well.
That began a long period of making custom stained glass windows and lamps, glass repair and restoration and teaching stained glass. Early in that timeframe I did some studies and an apprenticeship in stained glass, including Tiffany lamp reproduction and glass blowing. Some time after this was established, I found a source of Italian glass rods for torchworking. So putting together some of my own equipment, various plumbing and cutting torches, I began making beads and marbles as time allowed.
In 1998, I had moved Blue Mounds, a small town west of Madison and began building a larger studio behind my home, and over the next few years, migrated my business to this new location. Closing out my stained glass supply business to focus on custom glass work and lampworking.
During those many years I phased out the stained glass to focus on beads and marbles, all the while continuing my sales at art shows and as a Madison WI street vendor.
Many may know me as the marble man from the Dane county market, but many more may know me as the vendor who make clothing and canvas totes. I do a very low tech,home spun, silk screening method, with tried and true water based acrylic inks on cotton fabrics and canvas bag and totes.
I am Currently vending at the Dane County Farmers Market, and looking to move into more Renaissance, Viking, and Rendezvous type fairs.
FAQ -
Pavliscak Studios is at the Dane County Farmers Market on Saturdays from 7:30-1pm. Generally not present on days of high wind, rain, or temps below 40F, but you never know. We are the CASTLE TENT across from the square in front of the Veterans Museum.
Marbles -
I always imagined working in glass blowing and torch working, and my entry into the artistic facet of this work was the idea of making marbles as a focal object for kaleidoscopes. I wrestled for a while with this concept, making tiny things, beads and animals and gradually moving to larger work as my equipment and time allowed. By late 1996 I was finally making some tiny marbles on an old style auto mechanics torch. They were pretty ugly but I was really taken by the concept.
By 1998, when I made my studio in Blue Mounds, I set up a dedicated area and began expanding on my glass melting gear.
2000, I was using some nicer propane/oxygen torches, and turning out some much rounder and clearer marbles.
2002, My marbles were finally getting to the size and clarity I wanted for my kaleidoscopes. It was at this time I began traveling the country, going to Marble specific glass shows.
Marble shows peaked as the internet found its feet, and then waned after a few years. I did my last Marble shows at The Moon Marble Company ending in 2020. I had several periods of selling on the internet, 1999-2002 selling lampwork beads transitioning to marbles from 2002-2008. Now selling at art shows, the Dane Country Farmers Market (1992-present) and various iterations of my Website. My marbles are in books, museums and collections throughout the world.