Dougherty Glassworks

Every glass Dougherty Glassworks sells starts as a glowing blob on the end of a steel pipe in a furnace on Fraser Highway. The studio’s own line is mouth-blown and hand-shaped in Aldergrove: simple, mid-century-leaning shapes in pale green, pink and plum, some dimpled, some in diamond optic, made to be used rather than kept in a cabinet.

The glass

A few pieces and their prices when we checked:

• Merge stacking glasses, $42
• Signature drinking glasses, $52, and a stemless version at $48
• Deco decanter, $195, and a carafe at $105
• Halo vase, $70
• Christmas orbs, $35 to $40, which is about the friendliest way into owning a piece of hand-blown glass

They ship anywhere in Canada. They’re not shipping to the U.S. at the moment.

Make your own

The workshops are called experiences, and they’re one-on-one: you work beside a glassblower and leave with the thing you made. Recent ones have been a glass flower ($135), a sculpted glass heart ($145), a bowl ($145), orbs ($125) and a pumpkin in September ($185). The November 20 ornament session was already sold out when we looked, and most dates go quickly, so join the workshop announcement list on their site. Once or twice a year there’s a longer weekend workshop that teaches the full process, gathering through shaping.

As a gift for someone who has everything, it’s hard to beat a turn at a glass furnace.

The glassblower

Cameron Dougherty first gathered glass in 2007, trained at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, then did a five-year apprenticeship in California and worked in studios up and down the coast. He moved to Vancouver in 2017, started Dougherty Glassworks at the Terminal City Glass Co-op and was its studio manager from 2018 to 2021. In 2024 he built his own studio in Aldergrove. He lives and works in Langley, and he likes training students and apprentices.

Before you go

Studio visits are by appointment only, so don’t just turn up. Call 604-500-5158 or email [email protected].

More Aldergrove independents are on Shop Local in Aldergrove, and our Aldergrove guide has the rest of the town.