[theVirtuoso]

For crushing them I've always used a decent-sized cap from a bottle (like an inch in diameter and make sure it's flat no bumps on it's top) while keeping the beads in a pile and just pressing and turning with my thumb to crush the beads. I've found that if you crush them up as much as possible the first time you only need to do it a tiny bit more after piling it all together again. If done right you won't have any problem with beads flying everywhere, but I'm sure others can provide a foolproof method.