Bill Rasmussen has been a glass sculptor for about 60 years. A long time at one job that has never been boring or tedious. In July, 1955 Bill became the official Disneyland Glass blower with a beautiful shop right on Main Street. After the passing of Walt Disney the lessee structure at the Park changed and Bill moved on. He and Laura opened shops in Waikiki, then Ghiradelli Square in San Francisco, then on to Connecticut and Boston, back to Hawaii and finally ending up in the Mountains of Central Arizona until the latest move to Caldwell, Idaho

Bill's family learned their craft from an old German glass blower back in the mid-1930's in Southern California. His father had a shop on Santa Catalina Island in the 1940's. Bill has long been considered a trend setter in the art of lampworking. Many of today's premier glass artists admit they spent hours watching Bill work. At a recent gathering of his peers he was called a "National Treasure". To Laura he's just Bill!

Animation has always been the key to the success of Bill's sculptural pieces. Animation with a touch of whimsy to tickle your funny bone is what he strives for. We hope you will enjoy viewing his gallery of sculptures and that you find it necessary to giggle now and then with enjoyment.

Laura Rasmussen was a secretary at Disneyland when she discovered a really cute guy that made neat glass things right there on Main Street. It didn't take long for her to get his attention, but it took a year and a half to get him to marry her. They each had two daughters so they had a ready made family and two years later they had a son to make it his, mine and ours.

Laura helped out at the shop and the kids terrorized the park, a wonderful place for kids to grow up. Early on Bill tried to coax her into working glass, but she held off, only occasionally sitting down to do a small job that required little skills. About ten years ago Bill started playing around with beads and so Laura gave it a try also.

Admitting it was fun to do, she still resisted the urge concentrating instead on her water-color painting. A few years later she again gave bead making a go and hasn't looked back. As a full time bead maker she admits she doesn't have any desire to paint. Laura and Bill work side by side in their studio and enjoy the companionship of Peaches, their Labrador retriever and Thistle, the king cat.

Two of their daughters are glass artists also. Tami has been doing glass sculpture for over 20 years and also loves to play with bead making. Kristi has only recently allowed herself to "do glass" and is totally hooked on bead making.