You can clearly see all the mistakes I made in these beads but by the third one I had a pretty good idea of what goes into the making of one of these. The real key here is that you can't rush! As slow as you think you're going - go slower. Make sure to cover the opaque base dot completely with the transparent color or you get little edges peeking over and around. Make each set of dots smaller or they'll all be the same, or close to the same, size which kind of defeats the final effect. Line the dots up precisely or your design will "wander." Do not let the base bead get too hot or the whole bead will begin to move and gravity will take over. That happened in all three of these beads and you can see in the black areas between the colors that the design has begun to curve. Only let the flame lick the edge of the bead as you melt each level in. It takes a long time but that would have solved my wandering design problem. I've decided that I don't have the patience needed to make a complete set of these. They each took about 15-20 minutes.
In closing I say "All praise to Amy" I have a newfound appreciation for the time, skill, and patience you put into each of your beautiful and very precise works of art.