Dichroic Glass: What is it and Where Did It Come From?
Prepare for some mind blowing facts
Dichroic glass is amazing with its chameleon type properties that gives today's jewellery that extra edge. I can't get enough of it!
I hold it in my hand and it's green but when tilted it turns blue. It goes into my kiln for some super heating and comes out blue but when tilted it's green. Just one example of glass magic!
The glass is available on black or clear base glass and there are so many colours, patterns and textures you can have. If you would like to chat about using some in your jewellery, contact me.
Pop to my FACEBOOK or INSTAGRAM page to see some of the jewellery I make using dichroic. It's simply stunning!
Now for those mind blowing facts:
Modern dichroic glass is available as a result of materials research carried out by NASA and its contractors, who developed it for use in dichroic filters. However, colour changing glass dates back to at least the 4th century AD, though only a very few pieces, mostly fragments, survive. It was also made in the Renaissance in Venice and by imitators elsewhere; these pieces are also rare.
Multiple ultra-thin layers of different metals (such as gold or silver); oxides of such metals as titanium, chromium, aluminium, zirconium, or magnesium; or silica are vaporised by an electron beam in a vacuum chamber. The vapor then condenses on the surface of the glass in the form of a crystal structure. A protective layer of quartz crystal is sometimes added Other variants of such physical vapor deposition (PVD) coatings are also possible. The finished glass can have as many as 30 to 50 layers of these materials, yet the thickness of the total coating is approximately 30 to 35 millionths of an inch. The coating that is created is very similar to a gemstone and, by careful control of thickness, different colour may be obtained.
Ref: Wikipedia (thank you!)
A selection of dichroic I use in my memorial, wedding and everyday jewellery.