Mark Walton, 62, pictured here, is best known for his leaded glass windows. 'There's no one better,' says Los Angeles-based interior designer Tom Allardyce. Mr. Walton has restored the windows in a Silicon Valley house designed by architect Julia Morgan and made custom windows for members of the Saudi royal family.

His windows are designed by cutting glass into patterns and then putting the pieces together with metal strips called cames. Mr. Walton works mostly out of a modest cottage he built in the backyard of his home in Campbell, Calif., pictured here. It is about an hour south of San Francisco.

The cottage has a drill press, a cutting table (where he cuts the glass) and a lead table (where he stretches the strips of lead to make them stronger and straighter). His wife and three of his seven children work with him. Mr. Walton began Walton Art Glass Studios in 1972.

While he does have competition, the number of art glass studios is shrinking as much of the work has moved to China because of its lower labor costs. Here, Mr. Walton is using pliers to break a scored piece of glass for a window he's making.

Mr. Walton draws every design by hand. 'This is what separates us from other people,' he says. A single window might involve a thousand pieces and curves of different shapes and sizes, all of which he cuts free-hand using a glass cutter dipped in oil to lubricate it. Pictured is his son Michael working on a custom piece.

The cost of Mr. Walton's work depends on the designs and can range from $285 a square foot to more than $600 a square foot. Pictured: One of the many libraries of glass that Mr. Walton keeps in his backyard home studio.

Mr. Walton browses one of the many libraries of glass.

Mr. Walton's father hoped he would take over the family contracting business, but Mr. Walton went to art school and became intrigued by what he saw at a glass factory in West Virginia during his travels. Soon he left college to work as a glass artist full-time. Here, his son Michael carries a piece of art glass.

A custom leaded window can take two to three months and it's common for Mr. Walton to spend two years on a single home, as there might be 80 to 100 windows. One house had more than 40 cabinet doors, each with a different geometric design. Pictured: A stained and beveled glass window by Walton Art Glass.

Mr. Walton started out doing mostly bevel work and then branched out into lamps and windows. In 1990, he began working in hot glass, making paperweights and the hand-blown glass pumpkins that he's known for locally as he has a show every October. Pictured is a glass ornament that he sells during Christmas time.

Mark Walton, center, in his backyard studio with two of his sons, Jeremy, left, and Michael, right.