About Dichroic Glass

“Dichroic” is Greek meaning  ”two colors”. Light is transmitted through the glass showing one color, and reflected from the glass showing another color. For example, if you hold a piece up to the light and look through it you might see yellow but if light bounces off of the glass you could see blue. Kind of like the colors you see in a soap bubble!

The coating on the glass is made from metallic oxides deposited on the glass in a high pressure chamber. Different metal combinations and thicknesses create the endless color palette available.

About the fusing process

Multiple layers and colors of 1/16-1/8th inch thick cold glass are hand cut, stacked together by what inspires me at the moment and heated in a kiln between 1300 and 1500 degrees, depending on the desired end result. Next the individual pieces are shaped on a grinder. Sometimes I want it to be square, sometimes triangular, sometimes round. Then each piece is fired again at a lower temperature to polish the edges. Each firing cycle takes between 8 and 12 hours. The glass is taken very slowly up to temperature and then very slowly back down to room temperature to prevent stress in the glass. The process makes these pendants very durable and they hold up to even my sometimes fumbly fingers on my studio floor.

Each piece is very unique and here’s why…

I can only control part of this process. I control perhaps the color choices and pattern in the glass. But that’s as far as I can take it! The heat working inside the kiln does it’s own thing to each piece inside. It changes shapes and colors to it’s own liking. I cannot re-create a single piece exactly alike.  This is why you will NEVER pass someone that has the same  piece. The heat decides what it will make for the day, not me.