TMI Answers to FAQs: Are You Open?

What most people usually mean by this is “is someone around? Can I stop by to shop/watch/place an order/bring my visiting family by to see the Shop…” That sort of thing. Because when you ask if we are open, the official answer is that we are open on Fridays and Saturdays from 11-4 but that’s not really the whole of it.

There is at least one of us working on site blowing glass every day of the week. Before the Pandemic, that would have meant we were open every day and depending on what was happening and who was here when you arrived you might have to wait a bit to be looked after. Once things started to reopen after the lockdown, there were so many requirements and restrictions that we decided we would designate specific days to be open to the public and schedule a second person to be in the studio to look after visitors and all the extra sanitizing because it was too much for someone who was trying to blow glass and get stuff done. And then we realized that we really like having a designated retail person. (I also have to say, during the pandemic, some platforms like Google Business were giving you the option to say you were “closed” or “closed temporarily” but they didn’t give the option to say “we’re still here and working and taking and filling orders, we just can’t accept in-person visitors right now” and that was really annoying.)

The thing is that being creative, and being social with people and making sales, require different brain settings. When it’s my turn to be blowing glass I appreciate being able to just focus on that, and hopefully be productive and get some good work done. There is also the consideration that when all my equipment is up and running I am burning a lot of gas and there is the need to make good use of it. I also get paid by the project, not by the hour, so if I have my production list for the day, which I plan to be about 6 hours and then when you include set up and clean up time it works out to about an 8-9 hour work day usually, and if I am interrupted I still have to get my List done and that can mean my work day gets really long, sometimes up to 13 or 14 hours.

All that said, we’re still always happy to see people who are interested in our work and we really appreciate your interest, and if you pop by we aren’t going to chase you away (although the door might be locked if we really can’t be interrupted). We do prefer to know ahead of time if we are expecting visitors so that we can schedule a second person to be here to look after you so that the glassblower can keep on with her work, and at the very least if we can’t arrange for a retail person, the glassblower that day will know to plan her break around your appointment so she can give you her full attention. This means that if you are running late for an appointment or need to cancel we appreciate a phone call.

Please do visit us at Fireweed Glass Studio, without an appointment on Fridays and Saturdays 11-4, and we are also very happy to arrange appointments the rest of the week. To book an appointment please email us at fireweedglass@gmail.com at least a day ahead.