With the end of November coming up fast, I’ve got to prepare for the biggest family gathering at the Shapiro house in a very long time.
Soon, my house will be full of family - some that I haven’t seen for two years.
And when the Shapiros get together, we make things. Dinner, for example. Dessert, more importantly. A lot of creation will happen in our kitchen. We’ll cook together, talking while we work through family recipes, with a little light disagreement about exactly how big a “pinch of salt” is.
We’ll create outside the kitchen, too. After my parents teach the kids about how to cook Great Grandma’s Famous Pie (recipe below), I think my kids will probably teach their grandparents how to make puzzles.
We Shapiros love puzzles.
And we love being in the room while they get solved. After so much time apart, I couldn’t feel more grateful to have a house packed with the folks who mean the most to me in the whole world.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned lately, it’s to make the most of our time with each other.
So this month, I’ve got some announcements that I think will make your gift-giving (and gift-making) a bit easier:
- Light Plywood Proofgrade is now available. It weighs less, and it cuts twice as fast.
- Smashing new text designs for Glowforge Premium.
- The 2021 Glowforge Gift Guide is here, full of giftable designs for everyone on your list.
- UK customers can now buy locally!
- And my favorite in a month of good stuff: Glowforge now provides phone support.
But before all of that…
#Great-Grandma Shapiro’s Famous Pie Recipe
- Step 1: Mix flour, butter, sugar, water, and a few eggs.
- Step 2: Pick out most of the egg shells.
- Step 3: Bake until the smoke alarm signals it’s done.
- Step 4: Serve a store-bought pie.
Bon appetit!
Let’s get started…
Print fast with Light Plywood
The whole team has been excited to talk about this. We all know how important (and popular) Proofgrade™ materials are for this community – but I get to have all the fun and make the announcement.
Light Plywood is now available in the Glowforge Shop!
And later this week, we’ll be adding oversized Light Plywood so you can print enormous projects on it using your Pro Passthrough slot.
Light Plywood has the same outer hardwood later, semi-gloss coating, and price as Medium and Thick Plywood. Plus, its natural hardwood core makes it perfect for designs that require structural strength. But compared to Medium Plywood, Light Plywood weighs less, is slightly thinner, and cuts about twice as fast.
It’s like your Glowforge is all-new magic, all over again. It’s incredibly fast and rewarding to create things when the laser just zips through the material without even a pause! I love it, and have been printing up a storm with it.
To show off what’s possible with Light Plywood, we whipped up a beautiful, fast lantern creation (with optional paper wrapper). You can print it for free.
Give your text some extra Style
We noticed that the text tool has become one of the most-used features for Premium members – it’s an easy way to personalize your prints – so we’ve made it even better. First off, we’ve added a few more text options to our font menu so you can set your font size and the spacing between your letters, and more.
Second, we added text styles that let you curve, skew, and bend your text to create more creative, professional, and exciting designs. Want to explore for yourself? Just click Style to choose from a selection of effects (pictured below).
And don’t forget to show us what you create – there’s nothing that makes our software team happier than seeing the new features they’ve worked on show up in glowforge on Instagram.
2021 Glowforge Holiday Gift Guide
Starting this month, instead of featuring just one incredible design for November and December, we’re featuring dozens – just in time for the holidays.
We’ve pulled together the best printable gifts in our Holiday Gift Guide. When you browse the Glowforge Catalog, you’ll find something for everyone – even your hard-to-shop-for friends and family. Add some peace and tranquility to a loved one’s life with this Miniature Zen Garden. Or for Glowforge Pro owners, check out this Giraffe Height Ruler for your nieces and nephews (it’s over 5 feet tall!).
You can buy them one at a time, or get them all for free with Glowforge Premium. They come with full commercial rights so you can print as many as you want - for yourself, for gifts, or even to sell. We’ll be adding more giftable designs throughout the holidays, so be sure to check back often, and show off your creations on social media using #GiftingWithGlowforge.
We’re going global!
Since the very beginning, our mission at Glowforge has been to create a world where anyone can print anything.
That’s why I’m excited to officially launch our presence in the UK!
It’s a big world, and I can’t wait for everyone in it to be able to have the same access to Glowforge that US and UK customers now have.
But I should go into the details
I love that people use Glowforge to create on almost every continent (if you use a Glowforge in Antarctica, please please tell me). Because we’re based in the US, along with our distribution centers, shipping our products to customers across the pond can take… quite a while. So it’s pretty darn exciting for me to finally be able to say we’re fixing that.
Later this month, we’ll officially launch in the UK. Now, you might know a Glowforge customer who lives in the UK - or even be one of our amazing UK-based customers. So what does it mean to “launch” in the UK, if we already have some early, amazing customers there?
- We’ve set up operations in the UK, so Glowforge printers, Air Filters, Proofgrade materials, and spare parts will ship from distribution centers within the country. That means they will arrive substantially faster.
- All prices include taxes and fees, so you don’t have to deal with the hassle of figuring that out. If you want to know how much of a hassle we just eliminated, ask someone who had their printer shipped to London before this to show you their stack of paperwork.
- We’ll also offer dedicated customer support, so you’ll hear back on your time zone. For Support in the UK:
- Email: Send your questions & feedback to us at support-uk@glowforge.com
- Phone: +44 (808) 164-9273 (UK) and leave us a message. We’ll get right back to you.
As we ramp up our UK operations, we expect that you might hear from your friends in the UK who have questions about your Glowforge – you’re an expert, after all.
The big answer is: Yes,your referral link works internationally. If you’re based in the US but your friend is in the UK, or vice versa, it’s all the same. You can see more details at glowforge.com/referrals.
Stay tuned for more announcements like this as we expand to more countries in early 2022. We’re so excited to continue supporting new regions in new ways - one step closer to a world where anyone can print anything.
Need help? Let’s talk!
The other day, I saw a comment from a Glowforge creator that said “I wish Glowforge had phone support.” It took all of my self-restraint not to say “we do now!” ahead of this official announcement. You know how much I love being the bearer of good news.
Starting today, our support team is here to talk to you live, with phone support Monday - Friday 9AM- 5PM, Pacific time. Just call +1 (855) 338-2122.
Because we know it’s not always a straight path from idea to creation, we’re continually working to improve how we can help when you have a question or hit a roadblock with your Glowforge. You want answers fast so you can get back to printing whatever you can dream up, and we want that too.
That’s why a while back we added live chat as a beta test. We’re pausing that for now while we turn on phone support for the December holiday rush. Of course, we’ll still answer support requests via email and our community forum too!
To make sure we get it right, phone support will be in beta for a while, and we’ll be counting on your feedback to help us make it better and better. Please let us know how we’re doing at support@glowforge.com.
For help in the US
Phone: +1 (855) 338-2122 (US), Monday - Friday, 9AM - 5PM Pacific time
Community forum: Post to Community Support - Glowforge Owners Forum for support from the community and a reply from Glowforge
Email: Send your questions & feedback to support@glowforge.com
Homemade for the Holidays
There’s so much to look forward to this month.
Here in Seattle, I’ll be printing up solutions to those little nagging house problems that I’ve been putting off for ages. Now that we’ll have guests again, I can’t use the “I’m the only one who’ll see it” excuse to procrastinate. New spice rack, coming right up!
I’ll be busy, but it’ll be worth it. I can’t think of anything I’d rather do than gather together with my family to share a meal, solve a puzzle, and swap stories about the the most memorable meals our family enjoyed (or survived) in years past.
The kids haven’t heard most of those stories yet. There are a lot of them.
I know you’ll find a way to make this holiday special too. Just as special as our Shapiro family pie recipe.
–dan
PS: You can discuss this update here in the forum!