I've had so many people contact me about the glass that I sell that somehow it is defective or for whatever reason they can't get the tourmaline to strike so I made a quick and dirty youtube video showing how to strike a hollow tourmaline pink bead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bru...ature=youtu.be
It's not a great work of cinematography, but I think the most important thing about it is how LONG it takes to get the bead to strike. It takes over 6 minutes to get the little darling to strike fully.
Like I keep telling people: It WILL strike, you just have to coax it. A lot.
The video starts after the hollow is a bead, but not tourmaline pink yet. It's about a 20mm hollow.
Here are some color stills of the progression:
This is where it starts. Very little color, but it looks like it wants to try to strike. I think a lot of people give up after this and assume it's the glass that's just not right.
Here, the outside, near the mandrel is striking, but still, not what anyone is looking for.
This is after about 5 minutes in the flame dance. See? it's tourmaline pink after all! Just keep waving it back and forth in the flame and the color WILL progress to what you expect.
tada!