Famed Santa Cruz County glassmaker embraces imperfection in art and life

Over the millennia, people have used glass to drink, decorate cathedrals and illuminate rooms. As a Bay Area art student in the 1970s, Annieglass founder Annie Morhauser embraced glass as a way to craft beautiful, shimmering objects that could adorn people’s dinner tables and homes.

Along the way, Morhauser discovered that the process of making glass also offers important lessons about life.

In her Watsonville production studio, artisans use precision tools to cut out shapes for plates, bowls and sculptures from sheets of glass used in high-rise windows. They smooth the edges to prevent later chipping and accent the pieces with precious gold or platinum.

Then comes the “slumping,” where the magic happens — and where things sometimes go wrong. They lay the pieces across ceramic molds and place them in a kiln for up to eight hours in temperatures as high as 1,700 degrees to melt the glass into the contour of the mold. The result is plates, bowls and sculpture exquisite enough to be sold by Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and other high-end retailers and to be displayed in the Smithsonian and other museums.

“The thing about glass making is sometimes it will crack in production for absolutely no reason,” said Morhauser. “Sometimes it has to do with biometric pressure in the air: It can change the firing temperatures. Or maybe not.

“Maybe it’s because you got out of bed on the left side instead of the right side. It’s like that. It’s very frustrating, but it’s a good thing because it teaches you: You just need to keep trying. Don’t take it personally. Just move on.”

It has been 40 years since Morhauser launched Annieglass in a tiny studio in downtown Santa Cruz. In 1983, she was a recent graduate of Oakland’s California College of the Arts who had put herself through school through a combination of food stamps and scholarships. Out of necessity and through experimentation and innovation, Morhauser began making glassware to help support her growing family.

Within a few years, top retailers were putting in orders for Annieglass, starting with her original Roman Antique line of plates and bowls. The dinnerware, rough hewn but rimmed with 24-karat gold, astounded retailers for being surprisingly sturdy and dishwasher safe.

By the mid-1990s, then-first lady Hillary Clinton invited Morhauser to attend a White House celebration of American artists, and Morhauser had moved her company to her current 17,000-square-foot studio, allowing it to grow to the 22 employees it has now. The studio operates 30 kilns and turns out more than 20 lines of glassware and 80,000 pieces a year. At 65, Morhauser has recently begun turning over day-to-day operations to her daughter, Ava Reinhold.

Q. What’s your back story and how did you become interested in glass?

A. I grew up in New Jersey, and came out to California to go to college, which was pretty affordable then. I had a brother and sister-in-law who lived here. I started at the College of San Mateo, where I was introduced to etching and print-making.

I saw glass-blowing at Waddell Creek beach (in Davenport), where Bay Area colleges came together to do ceramic firing and glass-blowing. That night, it was a full moon, and a man was blowing glass. It was very graceful. I was studying art and dance at the time, and the glass-blowing seemed like the beautiful fusion of both. I thought, I had to try that!

Q. Did you learn about glass slumping at CCA?

A. At CCA, there was no textbook. We had to experiment and learn from one another. We had to test everything, and keep logbooks on whether the kiln was too hot or too low. … My mother was from Italy. She did sewing, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, bead-making. We have a history in our family of being good at crafts. Her grandfather was a mural painter in Italy. My son is one now. The idea in craft is that you’re constantly making something new and putting a lot of time into making it right, experimenting, double checking and getting the formulas right.

Q. Did you already know then what you wanted to do after CCA?

A. I fell in love with a surfer and got a job working full time in a really beautiful glass gallery in Capitola village. I learned the retail side of this business, which was super valuable: how to pack and ship, how to do accounts receivable, the arrangements with galleries and retailers. I kept my day job, but shared a studio with a painter in the Old Sash Mill in Santa Cruz. I bought an old kiln. It just incrementally grew.

Q. Wasn’t the emphasis at CCA to be an artist?

A. Exactly. The push was to do sculpture, not production. Production was a dirty word. But then I got married, we bought a house, and I had to come up with $948 a month for mortgage. I figured, I have to take this education and make a living.

Q. What was the breakthrough for you?

A. I first went to a trade show in 1983. Someone bought my Roman Antique line, then (retailers) were buying things by the dozen. I hired my first employee. He was a baker around the corner — and he was hunting through my trash outside. He had a friend who had a friend. Pretty soon we had a crew.

Q. Now Annieglass is everywhere. Your daughter, Ava, said you’re especially popular in Mississippi…