oh!
Well.. take a mandrel, wrap a clear bead with perhaps a few squiggles here and there... cover it up with an opaque colour... anneal it, and then GRIND it down partway so you can peer through the 'window' at all the layers of the bead. Looks really nifty.
I would find a pic of this fo ryou but it's late...
I thought it was something else... and i was wrong, which is why i was confused.