Handmade Dichroic Glass Jewelry from North Carolina

Dichroic glass is made when multiple ultra-thin layers of different metals such as gold or silver, and metal oxides such as titanium, chromium, aluminum, zirconium, or magnesium, or silica are vaporized by an electron beam in a vacuum chamber. The array of brilliant colors are produced from light being reflected just like what occurs in a rainbow or a dragonfly wing. There’s an amazing amount of steps in creating every single piece of jewelry. Each piece of glass is handled many times and there is no machine that can make dichroic glass. The glass is fired in a kiln at over 1400 degrees several times in order to achieve the right effect. And each firing can take up to 12 hours from start to finish. When the sheet of glass is cool enough, then they cut the shapes with diamond tools and polish the glass before wrapping them with silver plated wire.