2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21
In recent years, not a single art exhibition in the section of glassware or jewelry made of gold and silver is complete without works of art and jewelry masterpieces, in the creation of which masters used dichroic glass. There is something magical about this combination of words, just like the material itself.
Combined together the names of the most ancient material and modern, progressive technology. Dichroic glass - what is it? By what means did a person manage to achieve such a truly natural originality of man-made material? We will try to answer these questions.
Glass Magic
The first vases, bowls, jugs and other glassware were more expensive than gold. The historical roots of this material must be sought in ancient Rome. The art of mosaic masters, glass carvers, glassblowers of both ancient and modern Italy surprises, fascinates and amazes. Since the end of the fifteenth century, the secrets of Venetian glassmakers have been found in European countries. English, Spanish, Czech, German, French masters tried to reach the level of teachers from the island of Murano in the purity of glass and technology. There were successes, but no one managed to surpass the Venetians. Dichroic glass is already a modern product of the latest achievements in the production of an ancient material. High-tech, but not without romance if it falls into the hands of real artists.
Two colors in nature
Dichroic surfaces may change color. Their prototypes were obtained by the masters of the era of the Venetian glass Renaissance. In general, "dichroism" is an optical phenomenon. The literal translation of the term from the Greek language: "di" - two and "chroz" - color, i.e. "two colors". There are substances and materials that can reflect waves of one wavelength and transmit another. Outwardly, it looks like overflow, flickering when viewed from different angles.
Everyone saw how the cat's eyes shine, how the feathers on the peacock's tail and the wings of large May beetles shimmer in blue or green. A classic example of dichroism is the color of the tropical butterfly Margot. It is called a piece of heaven on earth - it has such an unusually deep blue color. And the amazing thing is that the wings themselves are colorless. The change in color is not due to pigmentation, but due to the optical properties of nano-inclusions of various shapes in the smallest hairs covering the surface of the beauty's wings. These same properties of the thinnest layers of calcium carbonate that cover the pearl make it mother-of-pearl. Nature provides many examples. Human genius and technological progress have made it possible to create an artificial material with similar properties.
For what, fromwhat
The original customer for the unique nanocoating for optical glass was the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Dichroic filters, prisms, mirrors are widely used in the military and aerospace industries. These light filters work like specialized mirrors, reflecting light of an uninteresting spectrum. The thickness of the multilayer coating on them is not more than the wavelength of light. Nanofilm layers are produced from oxides or nitrides of precious and semi-precious metals. Use compounds of aluminum, chromium, silicon, zirconium, magnesium, titanium, gold, silver. Each spray is unique and unrepeatable. This is what prompted people of peaceful creative professions - artists, designers, decorators, jewelers - to use the possibilities of this material, unique in all respects, in their works.
The production of souvenirs from dichroic glass and fine jewelry has become the most widespread. Materials and especially the work of sputtering dichroics is a very expensive pleasure, therefore the price of art products corresponds to the costs.
Sputtering of dichroic
The technology of applying the dichroic layer is unique. The principle is similar to the operation of a plasma monitor. A vacuum is created in the chamber of a special installation, resembling a hadron collider, heated to two hundred degrees. Under such conditions, a plasma appears on the surface of metal compounds. With an electron gun, electrons are knocked out of it, which are deposited onglass surface. The coating is fused into the glass at the atomic level and is therefore very durable. In this way, using various compounds of the metals listed above, it was possible to obtain several hundred shades of light filters.
The use of glass of different colors as a basis for spraying glass made it possible to further increase the variety.
Why glass
Glass as a base was not chosen by chance. It is an amorphous transparent material. Glass mass cools down quickly, not having time to crystallize. Silicon dioxide is the main ingredient for glass production. Production technology and various additives determine such characteristics as impact resistance, hardness, heat resistance, resistance to water and chemicals, and so on. For applying dichroic sputtering, hard borosilicate glass with a high melting point is used. The result of color, glow, iridescence depends on the properties of glass, the combination of metal oxides, the thickness and number of nanolayers of deposition.
Opportunities for fantasy
Masters of fusing and lampwork have long appreciated the merits of man-made material, which is not inferior in beauty to precious and rare stones. It is impossible to create dichroic glass with your own hands without special equipment. You don't have to do this now. Speci alty markets have a wide range of dichroics available as whole sheets or less expensive scrap. To create souvenirs, mosaics from different glass, you need to take into account their compatibility in terms of temperatureexpansion factor. This technological indicator of glass must be indicated by the manufacturer. It is important that the ESR is the same for different components, so that the work of pieces and inclusions does not fall apart and crack when cooling. For craftsmen, creators of jewelry with their own hands, online stores offer dichroic glass in the form of beads and cabochons. Dichroic beads are oval, round, oblong. Cabochons - in the form of different sizes of geometric shapes, drops, stars and various bizarre shapes.
In all this variety of forms, an even wider variety of content has frozen.
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