I love incorporating really special glass into my artwork—here’s a little bit more info about what that glass is, why it’s so special and why it costs so much lol
dichroic glass
all of my dichroic glass is made by Coatings by Sandberg, here’s how they explain it:
Dichroic Glass is a multi layer coating placed on glass by using a highly technical vacuum deposition process. Quartz Crystal and Metal Oxides are Vaporized with an electron beam gun in an airless vacuum chamber and the vapor then floats upward and attaches then condenses on the surface of the glass in the form of a crystal structure. Our colors have as many as 30 layers of these materials yet the thickness of the total coating is approximately 35 millionths of an inch. The coating that is created is very similar to a gemstone and by careful control in thickness, different colors are obtained.
Basically-it’s very sparkly. Not to be confused with iridescent glass which I also use a lot of. Side by side you can easily see the difference. There is also a third thing called “true dichro” that you don’t need to worry about but that i am contractually obligated to mention
Fun fact: Since I order directly from CBS, all of my sheets are custom made to order, meaning I get to decide the texture + color combo for each sheet
Mouth Blown Glass
All sheet glass is made by human hands, but usually it’s done by pouring molten glass on a machine that rolls it flat like a pancake. Many American glass manufacturers have been around over 100 years and produced glass for Tiffany, so it’s extremely cool and you should learn more about that process if you can, but that is not mouth blown!
Mouth blown glass takes the concept of “traditional” even further back, using the classic glassblowing method that has been used for over 1000 (!!!) years. Basically you blow a big ass cylinder with your human mouth, cut it open, then flatten it while it’s really really hot. Because glass is added to the cylinder in layers/a little at a time, you can create incredible watercolor style color variation, or get colors that are impossible to get using the industrial (but still extremely cool!!!!!) sheet glass production method. From an artistic pov, it also has a different texture and luminosity that immediately draws the eye like a gem.
I use mouthblown glass made by Fremont Antique Glass, Monarch Glass & St Just