Little River Hot Glass Studio — Attraction in Stowe

Beware that the owner’s sense of humor is NOT for everyone. We planned a glass-making session during a recent stay at Stowe for our anniversary but had to leave the session after just 15 minutes with the owner. We have a good sense of humor and wanted to give him a chance, but the rude, condescending and strange comments were too much!

For example, as we were skimming over the waiver form before signing, he told us that signing didn’t matter. Negligence would be impossible to prove and besides, if we were to get hurt that he would simply cut up our bodies, burn us in the furnace, dump our remains in the back and get rid of our car. No one would ever know. And he said this with a strange arrogance, no laugh or chuckle to reassure us that he was just kidding. It was all really strange.

As we were getting started, he told us to stand in front of him. We stood in front but he sarcastically said “no, not there, here.” And then he started the lesson and asked us questions like “What do you think happens when we take the glass out of the furnace?” My wife said “it’ll be malleable” “it’ll be hot and soft “ and he rudely said “yeah sure, but NO! What else??” The rude and condescending comments just escalated from there. He finally said you’ll understand my sense of humor eventually, to which we had enough — we said we are adults, paying customers and do not deserve to be treated that way. We didn’t want to be treated like that for an hour (especially since we were paying almost $200 for the hour), so we left.

We were looking forward to the activity, but we have never experienced such blatant rudeness like this before. Maybe he was having a bad day, but his bad day ruined ours....

My wife and I visited this glass studio for a lesson during the memorial day weekend. We couldn't have asked for a better experience. We worked with Michael who had my wife and I choose which style of glass sculpture / paperweight we would create in the following lesson along with selecting some colors to work into our creation. Afterward, he gave us the rundown of the workshop and the various steps and safety instructions we needed to follow as part of our class. I must say, during this part his quirky sense of humor really resonated well with us. Free humor as an added bonus to anything is always welcome.

During each of our lessons, he helped guide the process. While my wife did fairly well, I don't do so well when I try something for the first time -- especially glass blowing. Never did Michael make me feel like I was inept (even if I felt like I was) which really made the experience even more pleasant for me. At the end of the process, Michael asked my wife and I if we wanted him to refine our creations. My wife opted not to have him do so, which really made her experience even better. Although her sculpture looked great, she was able to keep what she had made without the corrections. This made what she created feel even more uniquely hers and she couldn't say enough how much she appreciated having that option.

Finally, after our lesson we asked for some hiking tips from the business manager and got some good tips. It didn't have anything to do with glass blowing but it just went to show how friendly the folks were here. We definitely will visit again next time we make the trip up...

Super terrible and confusing experience.

Our group accidentally stood in the parking lot blocking the specific spot one of the artists wanted to park in, because we were chatting with a patron who was on his way out, and trying to stay out of the way of a different shady open parking spot we assumed he was trying to park in. We moved quickly as soon as he asked.

Cue him loudly and passive-aggressively complaining about us to the other artist, and the other artist climbing on the bandwagon and both of them going off about us. They seemed to be upset and feeling disrespected that we didn't show enough deference to them as artists, and kept feeding off each other for 10+ minutes. From what I heard, they didn't seem to like that we were checking out the gallery/store area first, and not immediately enthralled and watching them, mouths agape with awe, in their workshop doing their craft. You could hear them complaining and badmouthing us from outside the building. Super uncomfortable, we didn't even say or do anything to these guys and just awkwardly trickled out of there as each of us slowly realized they were loudly talking about us.

Spent the drive home racking my brain to try and figure out what we did that was wrong or so offensive, but still can't figure it out.

Super rude and obnoxious, maybe they're grumpy...