Dichoric Designs by Nancy
My name is Nancy Fitzpatrick and I am a glass artist residing in Bethel Park. I have showcased my jewelry creations, Dichroic Designs by Nancy, at a variety of local arts and crafts fairs throughout
the greater Pittsburgh area for the past several years. Following my first glass fusing class, I became fascinated with the creative opportunities afforded by fusing glass in general and more specifically, the unlimited potential of fusing compatible art glass with dichroic glass to make unique, one of a kind glass jewelry.
Dichroic glass is a an amazing type of fusible glass composed of multiple ultra-thin micro- layers of different metals or oxides which give the glass its’ outstanding optical properties.
Dichroic glass was first developed by NASA for the space industry for use in satellite mirrors in the early 1990′s before being discovered almost a decade later by warm glass artists. Dichroic (pronounced dye-crow-ick) glass literally means “two-colored”and is derived from the Greek words “di” for two, and “chroma” for color. The main characteristic of dichroic glass is that it has a particular transmitted color and a completely different reflected color resulting in the dazzling properties of color and light manifested in the final jewelry creation.
All of my jewelry is handmade in my home studio. Each piece is hand cut and assembled before firing in a kiln to high temperatures to fuse together the layers. Following the initial fusing, I grind each piece to a desired shape and return it to the kiln for at least one and oftentimes several additional firings to add additional layers for a more colorful and dynamic piece of jewelry.
During the final fusing, the glass is annealed or hardened for greater strength and durability.
The entire process usually occurs over the course of several days as the glass must cool in the kiln to room temperature before removing it from the kiln and preparing it for additional firings.
I am continually amazed by the creative potential utilizing this magical type of glass and I hope you will enjoy your dichroic jewelry creation as much as I enjoyed creating it.
