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Less admin, more gathering.

Run a glass studio's commissions, hot shop hours and teaching in one place. Plya keeps the windows, the commissions, the galleries and the summer sessions together, with the hot shop hours behind each piece logged against it.

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Open calls, fairs and grants for glass

A rented hot shop block is three hours on the clock. Start the timer from your phone as Internal time on the commission, stop it when the block ends, and the project's Time tab shows every hour the pendants have taken so far.

The admin that comes with a hot shop and a list of commissions

Glass is paid for in heat before a piece exists. A furnace runs around the clock, and a rented glory hole runs $40 to $70 an hour, booked in two- or three-hour blocks. The commissions, the galleries and the summer teaching all have to cover it.

  • The furnace that runs while you sleep

    A furnace stays hot all year, so the gas bill comes every month, whether you blew glass that week or not. One studio owner put theirs at $2,000 to $3,000 a month.

  • The quote written before the blocks were counted

    The pendants took four blocks, and the quote assumed two. Some hot shops book only in three-hour blocks, and the extra glass is charged by the pound.

  • The window waiting on a committee

    The scale drawing goes to the committee, comes back with notes, and goes again. The full-size cartoon can't start until they approve, and the install date stays where it was.

  • The piece that travels in its own box

    Galleries ask for custom foam inserts, labeled layers and boxes the artist supplies. The show sets the ship date, and the box has to be ready before it.

At the bench

Know which block is next for each commission

Twelve pendants for a bakery is a project with its steps as dated tasks: the color order, each hot shop block, the cold work and the polish. Today lists what's due across every commission, so Saturday's block is on your phone before you leave for the shop.

Hands rolling a blowpipe on the bench rails and shaping a glowing gather with wet newspaper

Take a window from scale drawing to cartoon

A stained glass window is a project with the chapel as its client, and its canvas holds the work: the scale drawing at an inch to the foot, a sticky for each note from the committee, and the full-size cartoon beside them. A task list card shows the project's steps, live, so the day you cut the glass is on the board.

How the canvas works

Set up a summer teaching session in one sentence

Tell Ash where you're teaching and when, and it makes the project with the school as the client, plus a task for each thing you named, with its date. Each change shows as a chip with Open and Undo, and Open takes you to the project and its tasks.

How Ash works

Tools for the full glass artist's year

Winter craft shows, spring classes, summer teaching, fall galleries and the pumpkin weekends come around every year. Each one has a place in Plya.

  1. January to February

    Winter craft shows

    The Palm Beach Fine Craft Show and American Craft Made Baltimore open in February. Crating, shipping and load-in are tasks dated back from each show.

  2. March to April

    Classes and the spring shows

    The Glass Craft & Bead Expo runs its classes in Las Vegas in late March, and the Smithsonian Craft Show opens in April. The students, collectors and gallery owners you meet go in Network, with where you met them.

  3. May to June

    Summer teaching

    Glass schools run their summer sessions from late spring into September. Each session you teach is a project with the school as its client, and the supply list and the tools you ship are its tasks.

  4. July to August

    Galleries for the fall

    Galleries plan their fall and holiday shows over the summer. Pitch them on a Galleries pipeline, each with its next follow-up dated.

  5. September to October

    Pumpkin weekends

    Glass pumpkins fill the October weekends, and they've been in the hot shop since winter. Finance → Time, filtered to the pumpkins, shows the hours behind them week by week.

  6. November to December

    Residency and show deadlines

    The Museum of Glass Visiting Artist Residency is due Nov 1, and the Palm Beach show takes applications until Nov 6. Opportunities lists both under Ceramics & glass, with their deadlines.

Keep the hot shop's rate sheet with the hot shop

The hot shop you rent from is an organization in Network, with the rental desk under People. A note linked to it holds the rate sheet: the hourly rate by glory hole size, the block length, extra glass by the pound and the annealer fee. When you quote the next commission, count its blocks from the last project's Time tab and price them from that note.

Made for every kind of studio

Plya for every craft and practice

Spend your hot shop hours on glass

The commissions, the galleries, the shows and the hours behind each piece go in Plya, where you can find them.

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