Fused glass is said to have been discovered about 4,000 years ago. Art glass fusing virtually disappeared when the Romans developed glass blowing, resurfacing in the 1940s and growing rapidly in the 1990s when the Bullseye Glass company developed a special line of fusible glass. While there are many different kinds of glass, the essential elements are sand and intense heat.
Fused glass -- also called warm glass and kiln-formed glass -- happens when cut pieces of art glass are fired in a kiln. The glass starts out as sheets of art glass, which I cut (along with my fingers), and design into what I see in my mind’s eye. My designs are solely my own. The glass may sometimes be several layers and take several fusings.
DICHROIC GLASS
I frequently use dichroic glass. Literally, it means "two colors.” Dichroic glass reflects one color (i.e., when light bounces off the surface of the glass) and transmits a different color (i.e., when light passes through the glass). Dichroic glass comes to us from the space program. The technology is based on thin-film physics. Dichroic glass is made in a vacuum chamber, where hot glass is coated with multiple microlayers of metallic oxides.
