black hills glass blowers

This is not an attraction as in comparison to other things to do in the hills so if you expect to see glass blowing at any given time you will be disappointed. We have been stopping into this business for over 15 years and have only seen glass work being done about 3/4ths of the time. I must say that being married to a woman that admits that she has a glass fetish makes this a mandatory stop on any Black Hills trip. We have enjoyed our visits with Pete and Gail on our stops and have learned through the years that when working with glass that you have to devote your attention to your work. We have purchased a number of items from them(mostly drinking glasses) which we use daily and have found them durable and beautiful. Their glass work is worth stopping to see and if your lucky enough to see them working glass then consider that as an added bonus to your trip.

An unfriendly woman was making small figurines...did not even acknowledge that we were in the building...it was the second time we had driven to see glass blowing here ... it was closed the first time...The sign outside said, Sunday - Open 12-? Well, we arrived the first time at ? and they were closed...we foolishly went back the next day...It was open, but "noone was home", at least noone who even noticed that we were in the building...we stay for about five minutes and left.

If you're going here to see glass blowing or lamp work in action, call ahead. We had a great experience here, but they explained they can only do work when the glass is ready to be worked with (right temperature, right consistency/clarity) so there's no way to promise when you can see demonstrations. Meanwhile, I've seen glassblowing in Texas Hill Country, in the Bahamas, and on a Celebrity cruise ship, and the work at Black Hills by regionally renowned artists Gail Damin and Peter Hopkins was far more impressive than the first two and comparable to the latter--the difference being the cruise ship artist seemed to only make large and exorbitant pieces, even if beautifully colored. Meanwhile the work at Black Hills was surprisingly reasonable for glass object art. Both artists have exhibited at the Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City. Thus, a beautiful sky blue, shot with white, three inch disc paperweight cost $60, and, as my mom collects paperweights, I know similar signed weights often cost $90 to $150, if not more. Perhaps we benefited from an end of the season price cut, but if you are in the area and collect glass art, I would make a point to stop here. Even if you don't get to see a demonstration, the artists were happy to explain the process to us. Glad we went.

We stopped in with our 3 boys (12, 9, and 6) as they were interested in seeing glass blowing up close. As we walked in, we didn't even receive a hello, the man just continued to clean the glass cases. We looked around for a minute and then I asked if they would be demonstrating glass blowing that day? He looked at me as if I were bothering him and said, "I've only been here for 30 minutes, the equipment is not hot enough" and walked to the back. We did not return later in the day nor will I ever. It's a shame as there was some very beautiful work that I may have considered purchasing. Our one and only bad experience on this trip.

Wife and kids went for a walk--we were staying nearby. They stopped in and the person glared at them (how dare you bring kids i.e. 'bulls' into a glass shop!) then ignored them. Another well-dressed couple that wanted to buy some items was also ignored. Maybe the owners need to ask themselves why they are even doing this sort of work if they don't want to sell it? Move to another state like New York with that bad attitude! Will NEVER return. Kids can learn about glass blowing at the Renaissance fair--they are friendly there and sell old world craftsmanship.

A charming little store with beautiful glass work, BUT the owners were definately not interested in giving us an educational tour (although we all showed interest), showing us there product or even giving us a hello. Our first non-friendly SD encounter. Too bad, I wanted to buy something.

We went and started talking with the owners, and they were very friendly and told us a lot about the process and their training, etc. He had lots of info about the different types of glass and colors. We got to see them do the tube glass and the furnace glass. It was very interesting.