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Black Dichroic Glass and Silver Necklace & Earrings

Currency:USD Category:Jewelry / Women's Jewelry Start Price:NA Estimated At:NA
Black Dichroic Glass and Silver Necklace & Earrings
From Delicate Treasurers Jewelry (Chapel Hill, NC):

Our jewelry is all handcrafted, one at a time, in our home studio. Debra is the wire sculpture artist and Dana is the fused glass artist and tool smith. We enjoy merging our talents to enhance each other’s work to create signature pieces of art. The highest quality materials possible are used to create lasting affordable art that can be enjoyed everyday. To create dazzling one of a kind earrings, pendants, necklaces and bracelets we use 90 COE dichroic and stained glass, 14KT gold-filled and argentium sterling silver wire and Swarovski Austrian crystals for color accents.

The Process:

The unique characteristic of dichroic glass is that light passing through the glass (transmitted) gives it one color, and light reflected by the glass gives a completely different color. Furthermore, these two colors change depending on angle of view. Originally created by NASA for the aerospace industry, it is currently used in IMAX movie projectors and as a reflector in halogen light bulbs, but most commonly by glass artists.

Dichroic glass is formed by coating glass with multiple layers of exotic metals. This is accomplished by using a highly technical process called vapor deposition. Sheets of clear or black glass, both smooth and textured, are suspended in a vacuum chamber. Metal oxides are vaporized in the chamber with a high voltage electron beam, and the vapor condenses on the surface of the glass forming a metal crystal structure. The optical properties of this crystal are such that it selectively reflects and transmits multiple colors of light. Different colors of dichroic glass have as many as 30 layers of these metals yet the thickness of the total coating is only 35 millionths of an inch.

Value: $365

Generously 100% donated by Susan Kriley, NRA-WLF Executive Committee member.