What is dichroic glass and why is it so special?

What is dichroic glass and why is it so special?

The word "dichroic", pronounced Dye-Cro-Ick, is derived from two Greek roots, "di" for two and "chroma" for color. So "dichroic" literally means "two-colored." You may sometimes hear dichroic glass referred to as "dichro" for short.

Dichroic Glass is one of the hottest materials being used by glass artisans today. It is an amazing material originally developed for the aerospace industry in the 1950's and 1960's when NASA, defense contractors,and the Department of Defense developed this high-tech material for use as optical filters, as a shield against cosmic radiation and many other uses. In recent years, Dichroic has been discovered by glass artists.

Dichroic is defined in the dictionary as “The property of a surface of reflecting light of one color and transmitting light of other colors.” Transmitted colors are what you see when you would look through a piece Dichroic Glass. Reflected colors are the colors you see when you hold the glass at an angle, and will be the opposite color of the transmission.

Dichroic Glass coatings are produced by using a vacuum deposition process to add multiple thin layers of various metallic oxides on top of the glass. This creates an optical filter that can selectively reflect and transmit wavelengths of light. The glass is also rotated in the vacuum chamber through the vaporization process in order to deposit uniform coatings on the glass.

A misconception is that dichroic glass is the same as fused glass or refers to the entire fused glass movement. Though fused glass or warm glass may incorporate dichroic glass elements; doing so is not a requirement. Dichroic glass is very popular and often used as an element in glass fusing. It can also be used in glass blowing and bead making.

Glass Artists love to incorporate Dichroic Glass in their jewelry making because Dichroic adds flash, pizzazz, sparkle, and intrigue to a finished jewelry piece,

In jewelry, Dichroic Glass is often formed into pendants, earrings, bracelets and beads. Dichroic Glass is also very popular in magnets, tiles, and drawer pulls.

DichroicAndMore.com has a wide selection of Dichroic Glass available for the Glass Artist.