Believe it or not, this technique has been around for thousands of years; millefiori beads were found in the Anglo Saxon 6th Century royal "ship burial" site in Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England. 

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Here's a three minute video showing how the technique works in polymer.

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You will see:

• the clay "conditioning process' (using a glorified pasta machine)

• creating a very basic 'cane'  - this is the block of clay that carries the pattern

• the creation of a Skinner blend (shading a sheet of clay from one colour to another)

•  and the basic cut-and-recombine process that characterises millefiori