When NASA was formed in 1958 one of its guiding principles was to conduct research and to create advancements that would benefit all people. Many of the items we use every day can be attributed to NASA. The challenge of doing work on the moon brought us the first cordless tools. The need to create glass face shields and other equipment to block harmful spectrums of light resulted in dichroic glass.

While dichroic glass hasn’t changed how we communicate or made us more efficient at home or at work dichroic glass adds vibrant colors and dimension to art glass jewelry, sculpture and functional objects.

Dichroic (pronounced dye – kro – ick) comes from a Greek word meaning two colors. Dichroic glass is made in a vacuum chamber where hot glass is coated with several micro thin layers of metallic oxides (e.g. titanium, chromium, selenium, and aluminum). This process creates a crystalline structure on the glass, which causes light to fracture. Each piece of dichroic glass has at least three colors: the color of the glass, the color that reflects from the glass, and a second refracted color that can be seen at a 45-degree angle. The transmitted and reflected colors in a particular piece of dichroic glass depend on which metallic oxides were used, how many micro layers were applied, and in what order.

As I was researching the origins of dichroic glass I came across some information on Murano glass.  This type of Italian glass has been made on the island of Murano near Venice Italy for centuries.

It is interesting to note that this ancient process also uses metal oxides to create different colors. This leaves us with a question to ponder. Did science influence art or did art influence science?