Description
To create our hand crafted, one of a kind, dichroic glass pins is quite the process. First we cut pieces of black glass, dichroic glass and clear. We carefully stack the pieces and place them into a kiln to fuse at 1450 degrees. When we see that the pieces have melted together, we turn off the kiln. Its best to allow the glass to slowly cool to room temperature. We can then we remove the pieces from the oven. Now we are ready to draw a shape with a paint pen on the surface, and cut it out with a diamond saw. After this, we grind and polish the glass to refine the shape and prepare to set in sterling.
After we completely polish and finish the glass, it’s time to create the silver setting. We use fine silver bezel to wrap the perimeter of each piece of glass. This thin metal strip is soft and works well to surround the perimeter of the cab. After we have a shape in the bezel we set the glass aside. Then we solder it onto the sheet of sterling, and again cut a larger version of the shape with about an 1/8″ boarder for a nice contemporary look. We complete the fabrication of the metal by grinding the metal until it has a clean refined shape with a mirror finish. Finally we can place the cab of glass permanently into the setting and secure it using a strong epoxy. We love to create these unique art piece that can be worn as a lapel pin or pendant.
If you would like to see more about our process of creating dichroic glass pins, go to our page on making dichroic jewelry.
