Sparkling dichroic focal beads

 I dragged out the dichroic glass yesterday afternoon and blew off the dust.  I soon realized that I needed a wet cloth as the dust layer had got so thick.  Was it really that long since I last used the dichro?

Dichroic glass is formed using the process of vapourizing quartz and metal oxides with an electron beam gun and condensing them into micro thin layers before layering them on to the surface of the glass.  When you look at dichroic glass you see many colours, as the light bends around the oxides and creates rainbows of colour. 

 

There is lots of information on the history of dichroic glass on the web, just type in Dichroic and have a read.

But for now, back to my stash of dusty glass.

Its been so long since I used this sparkly glass but after a few years of experimenting with beads and glass I have found that my favourite style is 'less is more'.  I am not a fussy person, I like plain and simple with some colour, so I layered my dichroic glass onto a base bead, encased in crystal clear glass to emphasis the sparkle and added some beautiful hand pulled cane flowers to the surface.

Very girlie; my favourite one is the top left, some lovely person likened it to a volcano explosion of colour.

 

You can find my beads in my Etsy shop or on eBay.