The "drips" are along the bottom - also the "bird," as it seems to have undergone a similar process. I looked more closely at the head and tail portions, which do not appear to be glued on, but rather melted on. What I thought was a fracture in fact appears to be a mark left by some sort of dowel pressed into the soft glass - similar to the bead to the left of the bird. You can see why I call these beads the "drips" - they definitely sagged while hot. On one, two saggy lobes apparently met beneath the hole.

Also included are other beads that were in this bunch. Under the microscope's fiberoptic light, the "black" glass is actually a deep cranberry, especially apparent on the plain barrel and the last-mentioned drip bead, where the fiberoptic reveals the glass to be translucent - you can see the white swirls inside and outside.

So - old swirl beads re-melted to imitate old folded glass, or manufactured to imitate old folded glass right from the get-go?