WILLIAMSTOWN, W.Va. -- After learning that the century-old Fenton Art Glass plant was about to shut down, Tiffany Parsons and her mother spent several harried hours and several hundred dollars on what they figured would be last-chance additions to carefully chosen glassware collections.

A year later, the women returned to the Fenton factory and store for a considerably less hectic trip. While her mother and aunt browsed last week for items crafted in Fenton's distinctive rose-hued Burmese glass, Ms. Parsons, 27, chased her 18-month-old son, Gunnar, through the parking lot and awaited her turn to shop.

"It's our girls' day out," said Ms. Parsons, of Ripley, W.Va., a 45-minute drive from this community sandwiched between Marietta, Ohio, and Parkersburg, W.Va., on the Ohio River.

"[Collecting] is something fun to do, and they have such pretty stuff," she said, ticking off vases, figurines and glass animals acquired over the years. "I'm glad they're still here."

So is company President George W. Fenton, as well as hundreds of residents of Williamstown, who a year ago were heartsick over what appeared to be the inevitable closure of a historic plant where generations of families worked.

The company survived the Great Depression and plenty of other tough periods after brothers Frank L. and John Fenton pulled up family and glassmaking roots in Western Pennsylvania and opened their Williamstown plant in 1907.

But what seemed to be insurmountable financial problems last fall forced the company to announce it would wind down operations by November. The result: a surge in last-ditch orders from collectors and dealers.

What was to have been Fenton's final show on the QVC television shopping channel in late September sold out in 12 minutes. To the surprise of company officials, orders kept on coming, generating enough cash to pay off some debt, make arrangements with suppliers and keep plant furnaces fired.

"It gave us a chance to rethink how we did business and to restructure," said Mr. Fenton, 59, the grandson of co-founder Frank L. Fenton. "We still have a way to go, but I am much more optimistic that we will continue to be here to make glass and to tell our story."

One of the last remnants of a U.S. glassmaking industry that once thrived in towns along the Ohio River, Fenton Art Glass long has been known for a range of intricate handmade pieces and innovative use of color.

Collectors worldwide prize Fenton's mouthblown or hand-decorated pieces in luminous red Cranberry, knobby white Hobnail, iridescent Carnival and other signature lines. The Fenton plant is one of West Virginia's most popular tourist destinations, and its wares routinely sell out quickly on QVC.

But in recent years and particularly after 9/11, company finances took multiple hits from lower-priced imports, shifting consumer tastes, rising costs of natural gas and other glassmaking supplies, and gasoline prices that kept tourists at home.

Customers no longer were as willing to dip into wallets for a piece of glass bearing a hefty price tag that reflected costs of pure gold or other pricey materials used to color it as well as several workers who blew or molded, painted and carved it.

By last fall, a plant that once employed more than 700 people was down to about 100 and final layoffs were looming. The company also owed "sizable'' debts, although Mr. Fenton wouldn't say how much.

But the startling wave of orders bought time to strip down and revamp operations, he said. Some salaried and support employees were laid off, but most glass-producing workers remained in the plant.

To cut costs, the company nixed sending glossy full-size catalogs and product samples to retailers in favor of a jazzed-up Web site and a single paper sheet featuring new products.

The company also switched to a made-to-order system in which limited numbers of products were offered for short periods, then produced and shipped only after retail customers ordered them.

That system eliminates waste and enables the company to deploy workers and furnaces more efficiently, Mr. Fenton said. To let buyers know the plant had not closed, the company reached out to collectors and antique dealers and scheduled new shows on QVC, said James Measell, Fenton's resident historian.

Fenton also added new International collections of glassware, painted ceramics and fiberglass seasonal decorations that are produced and shipped from Chinese factories.

Those items are less expensive to make and sell than glassware produced in the Williamstown plant, Mr. Fenton said. Many of those less-expensive glassware pieces -- particularly the crimson-hued Gold Ruby line -- resemble traditional Fenton items, although others are strikingly more contemporary.

"People are looking for bargains today," Mr. Fenton said. "We are trying to get a slice of that market as well, at that price point. In my mind, this has been a way to preserve what we do here -- the really special things -- and still have that lower price point."

No jobs have been eliminated in Williamstown, he said, because the Chinese plants produce different items and use different processes. Workers in Williamstown have never made ceramics, he said, and are producing the elaborate, labor-intensive pieces they've always made.

"We're continuing to stretch the envelope. But not everyone can afford a piece like that." he said, pointing to a 10-inch-tall "Fairy Frolic" Cameo vase on which creamy white glass has been carved into fairies and vines to expose a lower layer of glowing crimson. Its price: $1,100.

He hopes new buyers will pick up a lower-priced International piece, learn about the brand's history and move on to collecting Fenton USA. Sales of International items are expected to make up less than 10 percent of total Fenton sales this year, he said.

Over the past year, a few of about 25 furloughed employees have been called back to the Williamstown plant, where about 125 people now work, Mr. Fenton said. The company has paid down secured debt in which glass-making moulds and other assets had been pledged, and has reached agreements to pay most others owed for supplies, printing and packaging materials, he said.

Fenton also negotiated or is working out arrangements to pay more than $200,000 owed in county and local taxes, said Marty Seufer, Wood County, W.Va.'s, administrator and a Williamstown council member.

"I know they're not out of the woods, but I'm glad they're still there," said Mr. Seufer, who pointed out that Williamstown receives about $28,000 a year in taxes from Fenton and much more in Fenton-generated tourism revenue.

To preserve the value of its brand and to soothe collectors, Fenton has added "USA'' to moulds used to produce items in Williamstown and has created a separate logo to distinguish International lines.

"It's clearly marked, so there should never be any confusion,'' said Sharon Fenner, 61, of Browerville, Minn., president of the National Fenton Glass Society.

"Anything they can do to continue offering Fenton USA glass to those of us who want to collect it is a good thing,'' said Mrs. Fenner, who said she is "delighted, relieved, ecstatic" over the company's resurgence.

Mr. Fenton said he expects the company will hit sales targets this year, but concedes he expects next year to be "very difficult."

"I'm much more optimistic that we will survive and over time prosper," he said. "But it's not going to be easy."

Still, company officials and longtime employees said they are grateful to be operating, and to do so in the plant that has housed so much of their family and industry history.

"Telling the story of handmade glass is very important to us," Mr. Measell said. "We want to keep the art alive, but you have to be financially viable to keep the art alive. We've done what we had to do to keep the art alive."