Last Fall my mother and I went to Rome and Venice we had about 4 days in Rome and 4 days in Venice. I decided because the trip was so short that we would hire a private guide for Rome http://www.vaticantoursinc.com/ we did 3 tours in Rome the last one was the Vatican in this tour our guide was able to get the permits so we could go into the mosaic studio (which is not open to the public). In the studio they 5-6 people working on commissions and gifts that the pope can give to visiting dignitaries. 
To the right you will see a case that's were they have a catalog of colors so that they can repair the existing mosaics that are throughout the Vatican. To the left you can see them working there is only 3 artist in the shot they asked me not to photograph a large commission that the fourth artist was working on. It was huge and had taken him years and years to complete he had about 6 months left to go on it. Its a very quite room some of the artist have head phones on.
Very meticulous tiny little pieces the glass is called smalti. To learn more about smalti 
This is one of the workstations you can see the little boxes of smalti and to the left of the chair on the rectangle wood block is the hammer and hardie (which is the authentic way to cut smalti)
Our tour guide took this picture for us. The mosaic studio for me was the whole reason to visit the Vatican and the reason we stayed an extra day in Rome.
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