Dichroic Glass

Overview
Dichroic glass is a material used to make exquisite and vibrant beads, pendants and cabochons. These glass products have a distinctive and intensely colorful metallic appearance which changes as the piece is viewed at different angles.

Dichroic glass has become a popular material for glass beads and handcrafted jewelry. Even a simple bead or chunk of this stunning glass can make a perfect focal point for necklaces, bracelets, earrings and pins. The intensity of these pieces make them gorgeous on a simple finding, rubber chocker, or enhanced by beaded embellishments.

Dichroic glass is incorporated into fused glass pieces with extraordinary results. Originally developed by NASA for use in space suits, dichroic glass yields vivid colors which change hue as it is viewed at different angles. Glass artists quickly adopted the material to create glass jewelry pieces with an amazingly beautiful yet modern appearance.

Preparation of dichroic glass requires highly technical and precise equipment. The process requires a perfectly clean environment; the smallest speck of dust can alter the results. Each piece is completely individual and unique. After the glass is cleaned of all impurities, it is placed in a vacuum chamber and heated. A vapor of metallic materials like titanium, magnesium, zirconium beryllium, chromium, selenium, yttrium and tin are then vaporized by an electron beam an applied in microscopically thin layers to the glass. As many of 20 to 100 layers can be applied, yet the coasting is still thinner than one thousandth of a millimeter. The entire process can take between two and four hours. The result is a sheet of glass with a dichroic coating which can be used by glass artists to fabricate beads and other glass objects.

What makes dichroic glass so special is the different behavior of the glass and metallic coating. The glass heats more quickly than the coating when it is worked by glass artists, separating the two layers. When the piece cools, the glass and coating contract at slightly different rates as well. The original configuration of the coating can never be recreated, thus each dichroic glass piece is unique. The result is a very irregular rough surface which adds the variable refraction of light. This effect is enhanced at higher temperatures.

Dichroic glass is more expensive than regular glass, but it makes beautiful and unique fused glass pieces.