Annie Morhauser fell in love with the beauty of glass when she first saw it being blown on the beach over 30 years ago. She graduated from the California College of the Arts with training in a range of glass techniques, but it was developing her own "slumping" process back in the '80s that marked the beginning of Annieglass.

Annieglass's original tour de force was a piece called "Roman Antique," a plate of thick glass with a widely painted rim of pure gold, a spoof of traditional fine china. She took it to a trade show in 1983 and astounded the country's leading retailers with this entirely new look in dinnerware—today, "Roman Antique" is an oft-imitated industry icon.

In 2008, Annieglass celebrated its 25th anniversary as one of the industry's leaders in luxury-handmade, glass table art. The Annieglass studio in Santa Cruz, California, which was originally 400 square feet, is now a manufacturing facility of more than 15,000 square feet employing thirty full time employees and resident artists in training, who handcraft more than 80,000 plates, bowls, serving dishes and decorative accessories annually.

Annieglass has been recognized by the most prestigious names in the artistic, entertainment, and hospitality industries; Annieglass is sold at luxury retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Bloomingdales; has been used at leading hotels and restaurants such as the Bellagio Hotel and Casino, the Four Seasons, the Ritz Carlton, and the Waldorf Astoria; and has been featured in the private collections of contemporary luminaries such as Oprah Winfrey, Robin Williams, Jennifer Aniston, Caroline Kennedy, Dustin Hoffman, and Barbra Streisand. In 2006 the Smithsonian American Art Museum honored Annieglass by selecting two sculptural pieces ("Tiburon" and "Coquina" from the Shell series) as part of its permanent collection.