You can make plasma with High Voltage caps charged with a neon sign transformer...
Charge them, connect them to two rails.
Wrap metal slug in nylon and the field will ionize the nylon creating plasma. Since plasma is conductive, it will close the circuit and force the plasma and slug to the ends of the rod.
I think its nylon anyway... but yeah a schematic would be cool
I once saw a girl that made plasma on David Letterman. She put a piece of pencil led in a jar held up by two toothpicks in a microwave. And within a few seconds of heating, a ball of plasma was generated and appered to be "sitting" on top of the pencil led. That's all I know. :lol: