The History of Dichroic Glass
Dichroic Glass is truly amazing and it was invented in its current form by NASA in the 1960s for the Apollo missions.
Later it was used for color filters in photo processing and still later used in color TV Projectors.
The process for making dichroic glass is very high tech, and it involves putting up to 50 microscopic layers of metal-based minerals on glass. These minerals are sprayed on as a power finer than talcum power in a vacuum chamber, then heated at 1800 degrees for 3 days until they fuse to the glass. The total thickness of all these layers combined is less than the thickness of a human hair.
The result is a material that reflects light in only one color at a time, and that color changes depending on the angle of the light, which is where the name dichroic (Latin for 2 colors) comes from.
The final result, like other thin films, for example, oil film on water or a soap bubble reflects the entire rainbow. Also, because the color is not the result of a pigment, it can never change or fade.
For more information about the glass’ history click this link.
My History in Glass Art
I still get excited when a fresh batch comes out of the kilns, because you never know what colors or pattern will show up, it’s like Christmas morning.
After making the glass, each sheet is laser cut and water polished into the finished products you see. We are only 1 of 7 facilities in the world capable of laser cutting dichroic glass.
We started with higher-end shows and street fairs in Southern CA and decided it be would great to take our art on the road and meet our customers. We went to Northern CA and did a lot of shows over the last two years, only to be burned out by wildfires. So, we continued north, traveling through Oregon, and then migrated to Washington state where over the last year we met with a fine selection of fairs and shows. Only, to find ourselves confronted with COVID in the new year. Putting us here and motivating us to focus on building an online store.
The History of FanGLASStic
The history of fanGLASStic is sort of difficult to pin down right now (we keep writing new chapters.) I guess it’s kind of that way for everyone these days, a year ago seems like an eternity. We’ll have a great story to tell shortly and put it up for everyone to enjoy.
For now what we can say is that we’ve traveled from California to Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and we’re talking about a possible trip to Wyoming in the not too distant future. We’ve met friends and enthusiastic customers everywhere we’ve been. We’re proud to say our art has traveled to every state of the union and globally to folks in; Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, New Zealand, Scotland, Switzerland, Thailand, Wales.
Some of the shows we’ve been to
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”6″ display=”basic_slideshow”]We have hundreds of pictures of the dozens of shows we’ve been a part of. We picked out just a few to share with you. So you can get a sense of the great fun and excitement we experienced being with the folks who attend these shows.
Some of the People we’ve met
We’ve met so many fun and interesting people at street fairs and art shows. People who were from fascinating walks of life.
We’ve had a group of Alaskan Fishing Captains who found our salmon pendants irresistible. They wore their pendants with pride.
We’ve had parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, spouses, young lovers, friends, and people buying our glass for themselves.
Our glass often inspires gift giving.
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