Don't worry...this isn't a science lesson. No, this is a classic lesson in thinking WAY outside of the proverbial "box".
Now, we all love the bling...yes? Yes! Sure, there's foil, aventurine, goldstone (NOT a stone, btw), silver wire, etc. But what IS it about dichroic that sets it apart, and above, the others? Perhaps it is the depth of the sparkle, or the incredible range of colors achieved in one tiny bead, or the stark brilliance of it when applied to the surface of a piece.
So, where DID this stuff come from? Is it REALLY the stuff that astronaut's visors are coated with? No. Is it made with lasers? No. Mount Saint Helen's Ash? No.
It is a coating used to reflect lasers into space, making them more powerful than if scientists pointed them directly. Weird, huh? It is also used to coat mirrors used to cool the film in IMAX theater projectors. I know, totally bizarre.
The story begins in the early to mid-70's in California at a place called GM Vacuum Coatings. Gerry Sandberg, an employee of GM, ran across some pretty, shiny glass that GM had produced for one of their aerospace mirrors, but rejected for some reason. He gave the scraps to a friend of his who was a stained glass artist. The friend used them in suncatchers and some stained glass pieces. The friend's wife, however, decided to experiment with fusing the shiny pieces to some experimental Bullseye "Tested Compatible" glass...and the rest is history!
Because of it's high-cost, dichroic glass has been sparsely used in artwork until recent years. Gerry Sandberg is now the owner and founder of Coatings By Sandberg, argueably the largest dichroic coating manufacturer in the world. He has been instrumental in bringing dichroic into the art world. As it becomes more popular, like anything else, the price has begun to drop slightly.
Just a quick tutorial on how dichroic glass is actually made...
The coating is comprised of certain oxides like titanium, zirconium and others. A tiny crucible is filled with a particular oxide and placed in the bottom of a large vacuum chamber. A sheet of glass is suspended from fixed positions on the ceiling of the chamber. The oxides are then superheated, creating a vapor which then deposits itself on the surface of the glass in a crystaline form. As more layers are added, the color becomes more and more saturated. If other oxides are used, in alternating layers, different colors can be achieved.
So, besides the complicated manufacturing process, why are dichroic pieces so expensive?
This is due to the fragility of that thin oxide layer on the glass. In a digitally-controlled kiln, an artist's results with dichroic can be relatively predictable. Learning to use the colors together and manipulate them into fantastic, sparkling pieces with incredible depth takes a lot of experimentation and, thus, a lot of wasted, expensive glass. In flamework, the challenge is even greater in that the heat source is variable. A flame is not a consistent temperature, plus the surrounding air plays a larger role than in kilnwork. In addition, direct contact with a flame for any length of time can cause the coating to oxidize and "cloud up", resulting in a dull, grey scum on the surface of the glass. Not pretty.
So, when you pay for a dichroic bead or jewelry that contains dichroic elements, you are paying for many months, even years, of diligent practice and trial that have resulted in a skillset for this artist. A skillset that is fairly rare in the glass art industry.
Some great dichroic resources:
