'How to' guides...

Did you ever wonder how Fire Devil creates the jewellery you see on this site?

Well wonder no more - this page will explain some of the techniques used to make Fire Devil jewellery....

If there's anything else you'd like to see here just let Fire Devil know.

Dichroic Glass 101 - what is it?

This glass has a lovely shimmer effect.  It's two-tone, so you see two completely different but complementary colours when light catches it in different ways. The colours are created as light hits the glass: from the entire spectrum just one colour passes completely through it (the transmitted colour) and one other colour bounces back (yes, you guessed it, the reflected colour).

This effect comes from a coating of microscopically tiny particles of metals or oxides.  The coating is safe, non-toxic and incredibly hard-wearing when it's been fired - you won't be able to scratch it off.  The glass will have around 30 to 50 layers of particles but the finished coating is still only about 30 millionths of an inch thick (and it's still thousands of times thinner than a human hair), so you can still see through it.

Dichroic glass often starts life as a plain round sheet of up to 24 inches in diameter.  It goes into a vacuum chamber where a laser vapourises the metals or oxides.  The vapour then condenses on the rotating glass, depositing an even layer of particles. Interestingly, all coatings are made up of the same materials - gold, silver, titanium, chromium, aluminium, zirconium, magnesium or silica - just in varying thicknesses.

This process also makes for small variations in colour, so every sheet is unique.  This is the artist's dream, as you know no one will have exactly the same pattern, shade or colour.

Alongside this, the glass changes colour when fusing.  So, even if you do start off with the same colour, you will end up with a very different resulting colour or combination of colours, depending on what else you layer it with, the temperatures involved, the length of time you fuse it for and number of firings.  This is why it's such a fun material to work with - the end result is always a little bit of a surprise, even once you have been working with dichroic glass for a long time and know what finished colours to expect.

Now you know a little more about it, I hope you find it as exciting a material as I do!

• Fusing glass
• Attaching bails