Fun with Glass

Yesterday I went off with friends to a local stained glass shop for a jewelry making class,  Well, not really the jewelry, but the jewels!  It was so interesting!  We worked with dichroic glass (couldn't even say it until about 5 hours of practice!!) putting bits and pieces together into some envisioned work of art then waiting for four hours while it baked into these beauties.  They are so much prettier than when I put them together!

Wikpedia explained how this glass is made in a way that I understood (vaguely) -- Multiple ultra-thin layers of different metals (gold, silver), metal oxides (titanium, chromium, aluminium, zirconium, magnesium) and silica are vaporised by an electron beam in a vacuum chamber. The vapour then condenses on the surface of the glass in the form of a crystal structure. This is sometimes followed by a protective layer of quartz crystal The finished glass can have as many as 30 to 50 layers of these materials yet the thickness of the total coating is approximately 30 to 35 millionths of an inch (about 760 to 890 nm). The coating that is created is very similar to a gemstone and, by careful control of thickness, different colours are obtained. 

However it is made, it was interesting to work with.  Start with a base piece of glass.  Add some bits and pieces of colors and shapes that you like, sprinkle on some fairy dust, and top with another piece of clear glass.  Bake at intense heat (kiln required) and watch it morph into something really beautiful!  I'm going to add bails to these -- or maybe pin backs -- and turn them into gifts!  I'd love to try making some teeny ones for earrings sometime!