makerfaire.com:

Maker Faire Bay Area 2009
Make Your Own Glass Beads

Location: Redwood Outside South L2

Learn the secrets of the Venetian Masters! With common equipment you can make your own glass beads, buttons and dishes. Come see how it's done, live, before your very eyes!

Web site: http://www.nightsidestudios.com

About the Maker(s)

Ralph McCaskey [
Ralph McCaskey is a glass beadmaker who usually can be found hunched over his torch in his subterranean studio deep beneath Downtown California, often in the dead of night. Some of the odd and wonderous denizens that populate the studio's dimly-lit grottoes and passageways find themselves expressed in Ralph's glasswork. Others crawl directly out of the dark recesses of his fevered imagination. Nevertheless, Ralph has, for years, been found at various art and street fairs, enlightening the world about the virtues of glass, beads and art in general. A lifelong Downtown California native, Ralph is a member of the International Society of Glass Beadmakers and, in his spare time, demonstrates scientific concepts to dazzled elementary school students. His patient wife, loving dog and occasionally tolerant children also join in the pyromaniacal fun from time to time. Ralph finds inspiration in jazz and ethnic music (particularly Slim Gaillard) and continues to be fascinated by his thousands-of-years-old craft. sign bio: Ralph is a glass beadmaker who usually can be found hunched over his torch in his subterranean studio deep beneath Downtown California, often in the dead of night. Some of the odd and wonderous denizens that populate the studio's dimly-lit grottoes and passageways find themselves expressed in Ralph's glasswork. Others crawl directly out of the dark recesses of his fevered imagination. He is a member of the International Society of Glass Beadmakers.
http://www.nightsidestudios.com