I found this video quite useful. Instead of using the diamond shears, heat the mandrel to red hot while pulling on the bead with your hot fingers (just the mandrel, not the bead) . Be sure you have built the bead right on the end of your mandrel. The hole will not really be much worse than the hole in this video was.
You can start with a single color. I am hoping to make a wee video of myself doing this and writing up a bit on my blog in the next couple of days since there is not much out there. I am still just learning, but have the basics kind of down.
Well, I actually need to wait a little bit on this. I need to get the holes down a little better!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgaN1q4enk0