Jewelry Craft 

July/August 2001

The Dichroic Lady

By Rebekah Wills

Welcome to the wonderful world of dichroic glass! Many of the stars at the Academy Awards this year sported Dichroic Glass jewelry to show off their individuality and style. You can find dichroic glass in beads, cabochons and pendants. Artists are making necklaces, bracelets, wirewrapped jewelry, and beaded jewelry from this versatile glass. If you have beaded or wirewrapped with dichroic cabs already you'll know how wonderful your jewelry turns out and the many compliments you receive.

I recently caught up with one of the finest Dichroic Glass artists I have ever seen. Carolyn Beebe was born in Canada, moved to southern California at age 8 and has been living in Arizona for 11 years. Carolyn has a history of making stained glass windows for 27 years. She taught adult education in stained glass for 15 years, and also did 24 shows a year selling her stained glass at arts and crafts shows. She has a college degree in police science, then went back to school to be a legal secretary. "I found it to be too nerve wracking and stressful. I had always been creative doing hooked rugs, macramE9, and cross-stitch. I then got into cake decorating to relax and found that after working on decorating a cake for 2 hours it became frustrating that it would be eaten up in 15 min. I started taking classes in stained glass because that was an art form that would last. From there I took classes on dichroic glass cab making from Shirly Webster, an instructor from Pacific Glass in southern California. I have been fusing glass now for 4  BD years and make dichroic glass cabs, pendants, and beads full time. I love melting glass, whether it be with a torch or a kiln"

I asked Carolyn to explain a little about dichroic glass and then share with you the procedure she goes through in making these beautiful pieces. "Dichroic glass is a high-tech spin-off of the space industry. "Dichroic" is defined as the property of having more than one color, especially when viewed from different angles or from transmitted to reflect light. Dichroic coated glass is produced by a process called "thin film physics" and is generally referred to as a color separator. To get this effect, thin layers of metallic oxides, such as titanium, silicon, and magnesium are deposited upon the surface of the glass in a high temperature, vacuum furnace. It is this distance that causes a color shift. When dichroic glass is viewed at even slightly different angles, you will see a variety of different colors as you rotate it. When you rotate the filter from viewing directly through it the intermediate colors will shift down the rainbow. There are only a few manufacturers of Dichroic Glass in the U.S. I purchase my glass made by Gerald Sandburg thru Pacific Glass in Gardena, California."

The technical aspects of making cabochons and beads from the dichroic glass are equally complex. Carolyn explains, " The dichroic colors are usually coated on either clear or black glass. The glass being coated can be a flat or rippled glass and the color will differ on the different textures. I use Bullseye or Uroboros glass as a base glass, as they are both compatible with dichroic glass. I use a base color of black, blue, red, turquoise, white, etc. and start adding a variety of dichroic colors. I fire these pieces to approximately 1700 degrees over a two-hour period. After cooling the glass for several hours I add more dichroic glass and start the procedure all over again. I continue this until I'm truly happy with the color combination. I usually apply 5-6 layers of dichroic glass to get all the beautiful colors. The pieces of glass are then shaped on my diamond wheel grinder so as to achieve different shapes and sizes and then placed in the even heat tabletop 
kiln for the last firing."

Many glass cab makers do not go thru all these extra steps but according to Carolyn "it relaxes the glass and makes it all smooth in form, with no bubbles, or rough edges." Carolyn's dichroic glass incorporates the use of horizontal holes and vertical holes. "Not a lot of people do the vertical holes, but beaders like them and so I keep making them".

Her cabochons and pendants have an ethereal quality. No random pattern shown only layers of brilliant colors. It looks like outer space or the 
Northern Lights.

Carolyn has a unique color scheme and I wanted to know how she comes up with new ideas and color schemes so unique to her work. She explained "I like lots of colors, everyone is different. What sets me apart from other dichroic glassmakers is that I use more layers. When your first beginning your art as a cab maker, you use a minimal amount in dichroic glass but I have found the more color layers the more beautiful the finished piece. I use 5-6 layers the majority of time and every color is a different piece of glass that has been fired in at different levels."

The future holds many bead shows in the year 2002 for Carolyn and she expects to be seen at arts and crafts shows in Arizona, Nevada, and California. She will also be seen in Quartzite Arizona next year at the Desert Gardens from Jan 4 to Feb 15, 2002. Her work can also be seen at the Lewis Wilson Best Bead Shows in Tucson Feb 6-10 2002 and  Albuquerque Nov 9,10,11, 2001.

Her work can be seen in Bead stores all over the country and in Bermuda also. She sells to stores from California to Canada. She sells retail and wholesale. Finished wirewraped items and cabochons and pendants.

I asked Carolyn what her future goals were in her dichroic bead making and she said, "I hope to be making dichroic beads and sets of etched pendants cut in various pieces with a horizontal hole and dichroic beads to match. I can make almost any shape you would imagine and I can also make the cabs with a single or double hole, going vertical or horizontal (which then are referred to as beads). I usually take my cues from the public who will tell you what they need and like."

In the future Carolyn hopes to be doing more wholesale business, and continue making arts and crafts shows in order to keep her hands on the pulse of what the public wants in shapes and colors. She says "Beaders 
like one shape and wire wrapers like something totally different."

Carolyn Beebe- The Dichroic Lady can be reached by phone at 928-564-2604 or email hcbeebe@ctaz.com.

The Wire Artist Jeweller

December. 2000

Welcome to the wonderful world of  dichroic glass!!!  

If you have wire wrapped with dichroic cabs already you’ll know how wonderful your jewelry turns out and the many compliments you  receive.  If you haven’t used dichroic cabs now is the time!  I have been making dichroic cabs for almost four years and I am addicted.  I have been making stained glass windows for 27 years and started fusing glass and making beads for a hobby.  I love melting glass, whether it be with a torch  or a kiln.

Let me explain a little about dichroic glass and then I ‘ll share with you the procedure I go through in making these beautiful  pieces.  “Dichroic  glass is a high-tech spin-off of the space industry. “Dichroic” is defined as the property of having more than one color, especially when viewed from different angles or from transmitted to reflected light.  Dichroic coated glass is produced by a process called “thin film physics” and is generally referred to as a color separator.  It’s normally used as an interference filter in scientific measuring or correcting applications.  To get this effect, thin layers of metallic oxides, such as titanium, silicon, and magnesium are deposited upon the surface of the glass in a high temperature, vacuum furnace.

The glass to be coated is carefully cleaned, and fastened to a planetary arm in the top of the furnace chamber.  The oxides are placed in a crucible on the bottom of the chamber.  Air inside of the chamber is removed with a high vacuum-producing gyro-pump, and the chamber is heated to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.  The metallic oxides are vaporized by an electron beam, and the rotating glass target is evenly coated with many thin layers.  The resulting color is determined by the individual oxide compositions and the coatings sequence, totaling about 700 angstroms thick,(3-5 millionths of an inch).  All of this is tightly controlled by a computer.  Since the total thickness is so minute, the filter has very little mechanical integrity of its own and must be supported on a mechanically stable substrate.  Glass is the ideal candidate for this substrate.  It is transparent, has adequate rigidity, is stable, withstands relatively high temperatures, and is not affected by moisture, solvents or most acids.  I was invited to watch the procedure by Gerald  Sandberg,  of CBS (coatings by Sandberg) in Placentia, California.  It was so exciting to see my own glass being coated while I toured their shop.

Dichroic coatings transmit certain wavelengths of light, while reflecting others, thus creating an interference-effect similar to the iridescence observed in nature’s fire opal, dragonfly wings and hummingbird feathers.   The transmitted color is different than the reflected color, and when the light rays transmit straight through the glass they are less effected by refraction than when passing at an off axis angle, which make the light travel a greater distance through the glass.  It is this distance that causes a color shift.  When dichroic glass is viewed at even slightly different angles, you will see a variety of different colors as you rotate it.  When you rotate the filter from viewing directly through it the intermediate colors will shift down the rainbow.  Each dichroic glass color must be individually engineered.  There is no magic material that makes precisely the color you want, or some mythical high-tech machine that allows you to press the blue button and get blue dichroic glass off the conveyer belt.  Each film structure is different depending on which spectra of light we want to reflect away.  As an example: magenta transmission requires us to reflect away all the green light, allowing the blue violet, orange and red light to transmit through.  That particular structure requires 19 layers work of reflections to remove the light we wish from transmitted spectra.  Not all colors are so easy to achieve, green transmission is just the opposite of the magenta.  To get a green transmission, we have to reflect away all the light except the green.  That structure requires 49 layers.  This sounds like a big, thick coating, but if you add all those layer thicknesses together, the total coating thickness will still be less than one thousandth of a millimeter.

So now you know all about dichroic glass!!!  The dichroic colors are usually coated on either clear or black glass.   The glass being coated can be a flat or rippled glass and  the color will differ on the different textures.  I use Bullseye or Uroboros glass as a base glass, as they are both compatible with dichroic glass.   I use a base color of black, blue, red, turquoise, white, etc. and start adding a variety of dichroic colors.  I fire these pieces to approximately 1700 degrees over a two hour period.   After cooling  the glass for several hours I add more dichroic glass and start the  procedure all over again.  I continue this  until  I’m truly happy with the color combination.  I usually apply 5-6 layers of dichroic glass to get all the beautiful colors.  The pieces of glass are then shaped on my diamond grinder so as to achieve different shapes and sizes  and then placed in the kiln for the last firing.  This relaxes the glass and ensures nice smooth edges.  I can make almost any shape you would imagine and we can also make the cabs with a single  or double hole, going vertical or horizontal ( which then are referred to as beads).  These pieces can be wirewrapped or beaded into a variety of  necklace or bracelet  or brooch projects.

So are you ready to start a new project?  Let’s get started!  If you’re one of the lucky people who get to visit Quartzsite, Arizona in January or Febuary during the Gem and Mineral Show please stop by my booth at Tyson Wells.  I have thousands of dichroic  cabs and beads and you’ll surely find a least one for that new project.  If you can’t stop by please phone or email me and I’d be glad to help you. So good luck  and keep those fingers busy either wirewrapping, beading, or silversmithing.