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Dichroic Heart
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Detailed Description
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If you're not familiar with dichroic glass,* you're in for a treat. This Venetian glass heart is primarily violet and aqua, but, like a fascinating prism, when the light hits, it can reflect any shade of the rainbow. A strand of dichroic black faceted glass completes the look of this piece.A dramatic statement. 19"
*Dichroic combines two Greek roots "di" for two and "chroma" for color, literally meaning two colored. Dichroic glass was first made in Italy in 4th C AD. In the 1950s NASA developed this high tech material as a shield against cosmic radiation. For example, the golden sheen on an astronaut's face shield is a dichroic coating to protect against unfiltered rays. Today glass artists everywhere use this "manmade" gemstone in many formats, especially jewelry for its amazing irridescent rainbow effects.
Dichoric glass does not use paints, dyes, gels or any standard coloring agents. It is a painstaking and costly process. Its fantastic colors, sometimes compared to butterfly wings, are created by vaporizing metallic oxides in a vacuum chamber using a high-voltage electron beam. The complete process requires up to 50 separate layers of alternating metallic and glass oxides to produce an irridescent shifting rainbow of colors. Each piece of fused glass is totally unique.
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