hi,
Im also very new to all of it. but just today i leaned something new and your post reminded me of it. Im not sure if i understood you correctly but maybe "subsurface scattering" can help.
Under Illumination, under Textur, effects. Choose subsurface scattering and then one of the presets and change them around.
And on the Buttom do change the value, depending on how small your object are and how much light you want to go through at the edges.(in german its called "Pfadlänge". i googled it in english ??"path length"??)
I hope it will help you. if its unclear what i mean i can upload a video (sorry my english is not so good).
good luck