[losthelm]

There are a lot of vendors divardi glass is a little tricky to work with but you can learn fairly good heat control and patience. The snap crackle pop of divardi scares a lot of people and it seams to pickup carbon grime a lot more then other glass.

Look around at peoples profiles and look at the various facebook lampworking groups to see if you can find someone local to talk with.
I find 90% of the members hear are willing to share space in the annealer if you ask nicely and toss a few bucks to offset electric.

As for removing reluctant beads look for a pop rivet gun use a rubber washer or piece of leather between the rivet gun and the bead and it should help it pop right off.

Some people also try putting the mandrel/bead in the freezer or dragging the mandrel across a rough surface to help loosen the bead a little.
less than perfect beads can be donated to a few organizations like beads of courage or utilized for decorative purposes. I have a small jar full of uglies that get used for all sorts of things.