Tony,
Great to hear you practiced doing beads. It is practice that makes perfect the more you turn the more comfortable you feel
Being a professional I'm not so sure about giving mushrooms away
George like you I learnt using just four tools and was told that is all you need to do everything. We just love tools though. Tools have evolved and we buy them because they make the job easier but I think we have too many.
Tony 500 beads is not a lot the picture below shows 100 spindles I turned for a set in the BBC TV drama 'the secret of Crickley Hall' and that is 2,400 beads in one job.