A guy at the Tacoma studio told me he never anneals his small pendants

I was at the Tacoma Glassblowing Studio last week, you know, just working on some small stuff. This guy next to me, he was making these little pendant drops. I saw him finish one, put it right on the steel table to cool. I asked him about it, and he said, 'Oh, for pieces this small, the annealing oven is a waste of time and propane.' He just lets them sit out. I tried to be nice, but I told him that's a huge risk for thermal shock, even on tiny things. He shrugged it off. Sure enough, about twenty minutes later, we heard a sharp *ping* from his table. One of his pendants just cracked right in half. It was a clean break from the stress. He lost a whole morning's work. Has anyone else run into people skipping the anneal on 'small' items? How do you explain it without sounding like you're lecturing?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencer_kim8518d ago

Ever see someone try to skip the kiln on a paperweight because it's 'thick'? Same bad logic, the core cools way slower than the outside. That internal stress has to go somewhere, and it's usually straight through the glass.

betty_walker17d ago

Maybe it's not always a disaster. Some tiny things can survive if they cool really slowly on their own. The guy just got unlucky with that one piece.