Dichroic glass is one of the most amazing materials being used by glass artists today.  It was first developed for the space industry in the early 1960’s.  Today, it is specially created by only a small number of glass manufacturers for use by artists and other specialties.

“Dichroic” is defined in the dictionary as, “The property of a surface to reflect light of one color and transmit light of another color.”  Di- is Greek for two and -chroic is Greek for color, thus when combined we have Dichroic or two colors.  Transmitted color is what you see when you look through a clear piece of Dichroic glass.  Reflected color is the color you see when you hold the same glass in front of you and view it from different angles.

In the manufacturing process, quartz crystal and metallic oxides are vaporized with an electron beam in an airless vacuum chamber and the vapor then floats upward and condenses on the surface of the glass in the form of a crystalline structure.  Dichroic glass sheets may have as many as thirty layers of these materials, yet the thickness of the total coating is only about 35 millionths of an inch.

Dichroic glass comes with either a black base or a clear base.  It comes in a variety of colors and patterns that can be combined to create unusual, colorful, and incredibly beautiful jewelry, tile, and decorative items for your home.

A gift of Dichroic glass will forever be treasured as that one-of-a-kind creation that no one else will ever be able to duplicate.