[Sue in Maine]

You will need a kiln to anneal your beads. I used to cool my beads in a fiber blanket as well and then batch anneal them in a larger glass kiln from my fusing days. You might want to make a bookcover for your fiber blanket out of heavy duty aluminum foil for a couple of reasons. First, it keeps the heat in more and allows the beads to cool slower, helping to avoid thermal shocking. Secondly, the fibers are not anything you want to breathe so covering it keeps fibers out of the air.

Not sure what size beads you are making but larger (huge-ish!) beads will be more likely to crack than smaller ones.

Where are you located? We may have someone near you who can batch anneal your beads for you.

Edited to add: I wonder if what you're seeing as "shrinking" on the surface of your beads is really just the blanket imprint on the glass. If you put your beads in too hot, your bead will stick & your surface will get kinda cruddy. Don't put them in molten... you aren't doing that, right? You need an overall heat in your beads but let the glow go down... hold your bead under the table where it is dark. When the glow goes is time to put your bead in the f.blanket.

Sue