Post #355397 by BodhiBoy on Wed, Jan 16, 2008 6:25 PM

Hey, the delightful M&M, and the effervescent T-Jones-
I am still kicking myself in the ass for not mentioning the show earlier. It'd be great to see all of you!
Next year I'll put the word out as soon as I get it.
I don't know if there are any of the tiki tribe in upstate NY, but if there are I hope this event brings 'em out of the woodwork.

Meanwhile, I'm posting a couple of photos of the past day's warm up session with the museum's hot glass show gaffers: Eric Meek, George Kennard, and G. Brian Juk.

Here's Eric and George (the Big Kahuna) with the 5 furnace gathers needed to fill the wooden blow mold.

George drops the gather over the edge of the stage into the mold, while I get ready to close the mold.

I keep the mold held tightly shut while George inflates the gather; there's a lot of smoke and steam.

Here's George heading back to the bench with the world's Biggest Glass Tiki Head.

Here Eric picks up a blank I've enameled out of a warm-up kiln.

We've shaped the blank to look like a volcano, with lava running down from the top; Eric is giving it a final heat before knocking it off the punty.

This last photo isn't glass; it's a giant carved ICE Moai head.
Tomorrow night it will be lit with stage lights and will have flames shooting out the top of its head. Oh yeah....

FireMonkey Glass: Real Cool Glass, Made Real Hot!