Post #354592 by BodhiBoy on Sun, Jan 13, 2008 6:58 AM

Here's a bit of Tiki news coming from the great frozen north.

Many of you know me, Marshall Hyde aka Bodhi Boy, as FireMonkey Glass (formerly BodhiGlass), maker of hand-sculpted glass Tiki beads that I sell at events like the Tiki Oasis, the Hukilau, and the London Luau (and on eBay.) When I'm not attending Tiki events I live and work in Corning, New York, a city famous for glassmaking, and home of the Corning Museum of Glass. I occasionally work with the museum in it's teaching facility, The Studio, where glassmakers come from around the world to teach and study; it is the year-round glass equivalent of the Tiki seminars at the Tiki Oasis or Hukilau.

Every month from October through May, the Corning Museum of Glass hosts a third-Thursday of the month party that they call 2300 degrees (that's the temperature inside a glassblower's furnace.) Typically over 2000 people show up at this free, open to the public event, where attendees get to eat and drink while watching local, national and international glass artists demonstrate various glassmaking techniques, check out the exhibits, and listen to a wide range of live music acts. It is always one hell of a good time.

About two years ago I was talking to Rob Cassetti, senior director of creative services at the museum, at one of theses 2300 events, and we got to talking about Tikis and Tiki culture. I suggested a Tiki-themed 2300 event, and he thought it sounded like a great idea. They would do it someday.

Well, this past autumn I got the word from Rob: a Tiki 2300 was a go for January. It would be called, "TIKI, FIRE & ICE."
I provided Steve Gibbs, the museum's events manager with a stack of Tiki-inspired CDs to guide them in choosing the music act for the event (I also consulted with Otto on this) and they choose Fisherman (you've seen 'em and you love 'em) from NYC as the band for the night. I told them that no Tiki event in the world would be complete without the brilliant King Kukulele as emcee, and the King agreed to be there as well. Q Cassetti designed the great poster for the event.
Rob and Steve were 100% committed to having a true Tiki experinece at the museum. My fantasy was becoming a reality: we were bringing TIKI to upstate New York!

I'll be the guy on the hot glass stage, working with the amazing gaffers (master glassblowers) from the museum's live hot glass show.
Nowadays I'm known for my glass beads, but before I began making beads I was a glassblower, so if you give me a furnace full of hot glass, I'm gonna use it! We'll be sand casting glass moais, blowing and hot-sculpting glass Tikis, and attempting to blow the biggest glass Tiki head into the biggest wooden Tiki blow mold ever made, one I created specially for the event.

Did I forget to mention that there will be giant carved ice Aku-Aku shooting fire from their heads?
And a live, feel-free-to-join-in drumming circle?
And over 20 world famous Finger Lakes wineries will be at the museum giving out free tastings of their newest 2008 wines?

Now THAT'S a party. Check out the museum's 2300 webpage here: http://www.cmog.org/index.asp?pageId=1641

If you live anywhere within a couple hundred miles of Corning, and can come out on a Thursday evening, be there this Thursday, January 17, 5:30 to 7:30 pm, and join the crowds for the only Tiki event in January in upstate New York this year (I'm confident that we can make that claim.)

And King, remember to bring your insulated grass skirt. I'll have an extra coat for you.

FireMonkey Glass: Real Cool Glass, Made Real Hot!

[ Edited by: BodhiBoy 2008-01-13 07:07 ]