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Dichroic Glass is Wearable Art
Dichroic (pronounced dye-KRO-ik) is a Greek word meaning two colors.
Dichroic glass reflects one color when light bounces off the surface
of the glass and transmits a different color when light passes through the glass.
A third color is usually visible at an angle.
Dichroic glass is made in a vacuum chamber,
where hot glass is coated with multiple microlayers of metallic oxides
(selenium, titanium, manganese and others) that have been vaporized with an electron gun.
The transmitted and reflected colors in a particular piece of dichroic glass
depend on which metallic oxides were used,
and on how many microlayers were applied and in what order.
When you look at a piece of dichroic glass, you see the reflected color.
When you hold it up and look through it, you see the transmitted color.
If the dichroic coated glass is on a black glass background you only see the reflected color,
but you see it with great intensity.
If the dichroic coating is on a clear glass background,
besides being able to see the colors shift when yu look through it,
you can look at the sides of the piece and see
that there is actually no color in the glass itself, it is clear glass.
The colors you see are physics in action.
The result of the microlayers of metallic oxides, which are colorless themselves,
interacting with light.
Is the glass fragile? Does it require special care?
The glass is no more fragile than a good drinking glass, but no less fragile either.
Things that would break a drinking glass will break fused glass,
like dropping it on concrete or some other hard surface,
striking it hard against another piece of glass, etc.
Barring that sort of thing, the pieces should last forever,
just like glass beads do.
(Glass beads can last for thousnds of years; much longer than we do.)
The glass can be washed
gently with clear water or alcohol if it needs cleaning.
There is no paint in the glass,
so there is nothing to fade or scratch off.
Dichoric glass won't fade or scratch once it has been kiln fired.
Remember . . . wearable art is still art even when you're not wearing it.
Hang your dichroic glass jewelry where you can see it between wearings,
and the color will give you something every time you pass by.
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