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Friday, 3 August 2012

Dichroic Glass Workshop

Student work - dichroic coated Bullseye glass
I recently travelled over to York to teach a one day workshop on dichroic coated glass fusing. I loaded up my car and set off to spend a happy Sunday cutting glass in Helen Drye's kitchen. 
Helen is a silver clay jeweller who was looking to expand her designs by including fused dichroic cabochons placed into silver clay settings. Along with her friend Lynne, who is interested in making dichroic glass jewellery, we went through the processes of designing, cutting, grinding and fusing dichroic coated glass. 


Glass heart
Dichroic coated glass is fabulous to work with because, once fused, the most amazing colours come to life and the glass has a colour shift as it catches the light. This means that it gives a touch of luxury to the wearer, enhancing clothing with flashes of colour. As it is a coating of metal oxides onto a glass surface it is also quite expensive to buy. I buy all mine from Warm Glass as they stock CBS (Coatings by Sandberg) dichroic which has the best colours and patterns.



At the workshop both students made three pieces of glass jewellery each, the first using small pieces fused between black and clear Bullseye glass, the second using dichroic coated glass stringers and the third, a design of their own.  I hope the tuition they received has helped them to think about their own designs and come up with their own style. The possibilities are endless. 


I had a lovely day as Helen plied us with tea and lunch in her lovely garden and I hope they enjoyed it too. If you live in North or West Yorkshire and would like to join a glass fusing workshop please email me HERE for details. Follow Glassprimitif on Facebook to see more Students' Work. 

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