While you’ll never get the glass as hot as it was when it came out of the furnace, the glass does need to be hot for you to work with it. And every second you work with it, it’s cooling. That means you need to reheat.
That’s where a reheating oven, called a glory hole, comes in. Made mostly of steel and refractory brick, with a mixture of gas and air working their magic inside, this is where you reheat all or a portion of your piece as you work. Unlike the furnace, you start the glory hole before each session and turn it off when you’re done. It takes about an hour to come up to working temperature–here’s a look just after the burner has been lit.
And later in use.
