The unglamorous half of glassblowing is a box. The annealer cools a piece from 900°F to room temperature over twelve hours, and it's the difference between glass that lasts and glass that doesn't.

Stress you can't see

Cool glass unevenly and the inside and outside contract at different rates. The piece looks fine for days, then cracks out of nowhere. The annealer eases that stress out at -50°F an hour.

Patience is a tool

We can blow a vessel in twenty minutes. We wait twelve hours for it to finish. The wait is part of the making.