Dichroic

I use Bullseye iridescent, opaque, clear and coloured glass that I cut, fire and fuse with Dichroic glass produced by Austin Thin Films and Sandbergs.  All the glass is imported from the USA.  Dichroic glass reflects the light of one colour whilst transmitting the light of other colours.  Reflected colours are the colours you see when you hold the glass at an angle, and is the opposite colour of the transmission.

Dichroic glass was originally developed in the 1950's by NASA for the space industry, it was used on the wings of the space shuttles.  An extremely expensive process, Dichroic coatings are produced by using a highly technical vacuum deposition process in which multiple thin layers of exotic materials; such as Metal Oxides, Titanium and platinum, are deposited onto a glass substrate in the form of a crystal structure.  This creates an optical filter that can selectively reflect and transmit wavelengths of light. 

Due to the complexity of the coating process there are colour differences in each small sheet of glass and, when fired to 870 °C / 1,700 °F, the colour will shift towards the left on the visible colour spectrum.  Every piece of work is unique and no two pieces, even earrings, will look exactly the same. 

When creating my fused glass jewellery and art pieces, as well as using more than one dichroic colour, which I fuse with coloured, clear or opaque glass. I also insert copper foil, solid silver particles, copper, silver and gold leaf and coloured enamels within many of my creations.  Each piece can then be fired up to 4 times in my kiln until I am satisfied that it has achieved both depth and texture.

As an example, on the left is a picture of a small piece of Austin Thin Films 'DichroMagic' before firing.  On the right, is the same glass, which has been fired onto Bullseye Opaque Black. As you can see, they look totally different.  And yet, if you looked at the piece of glass on the left, sideward on, you will be able to see the 'reflected' green of the glass.  And, you can just make out the reflected pink of the after fired piece on the right.  

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