Glass cooling bubbles

We can't say enough about how great these are!  Fantastic insulation, allows you to make beads of a significant size and allow them to cool slowly without having to put the hot bead into a heated kiln, allowing you to batch anneal significantly larger beads than if you used vermiculite or a fibre blanket. 

The little glass bubbles are so light that a bead on a mandrel placed into them virtually sinks out of sight with almost no pressure, thereby allowing you to put a bead into the bubbles without worrying about the distortion that can happen either with vermiculite or a fibre blanket.

Two bags are sufficient to fill a crock pot, or medium-sized tin.  The bubbles insulate so well that beads cool far more slowly, preventing cracking or distorting.  Mike has been using the bubbles for all his beadmaking for a year and wouldn't use anything else.