Welded glass product and method of fabrication

A method for welding together glass workpieces where one of the workpieces has metal nanoparticles positioned at or near the surface to be welded. The method comprises positioning the workpieces in operative contact at an interface where a weld is to be formed, applying a laser beam to be incident upon the interface wherein energy from the laser beam is absorbed by the nanoparticle bearing workpiece and the energy from the laser beam is transferred to the glass surrounding the metal nanoparticles to heat the glass and to weld the workpieces together