I have had these cone shaped mandrels for quite a while now. I was very excited when I got them. But my first, and later, second attempt were less than desirable, so I put them aside… There are a handful of bead artists that I admire, and one of them is Vickie Miller of Hipkitty Beads . Vickie makes the most wonderful beads, one style being cone shaped beads. I recently checked in on her blog, and I was yet, once again inspired to make a cone shaped bead. Here is my latest attempt, a Christmas tree – now, if only I could get the darn bead off the mandrel!, I would make myself a cute Christmas pendant:
lutkaandco.com 
Hi Linda,
Well, let’s see if I can help a bit. First of all I cover the entire mandrel, (the cone shaped part anyway), with bead release. If it makes any difference I use either Fusion or Fosterfire bead release and the release almost always cracks before I finish covering the mandrel but as long as you are careful and don’t push and pull too much on the molten glass and the release doesn’t flake off completely, it’s still between the glass and the mandrel, then you should be okay. But if the molten glass touches the bare metal of the mandrel then you probably won’t be able to get the bead off without damaging it.
I pull several fat, (3mm or thicker), stringers for the initial wrap making sure each wrap touches the previous wrap. Then I spend a quite a bit of time getting it all evened out. Adding and taking away glass where needed before I add any embellishments.
This is not the easiest bead to make and it takes lots of practice, practice, practice. By the looks of the bead in your photo you are doing just fine. Don’t give up. If I can do it so can you!
Vickie,
Thank you for your tips – I will be sure to try it!
Linda