Thank you for visiting Dichroic Enamels by Blue Lotus Glass.  I'm Vickie Wilner, and this site features original dichroic fused glass and dichroic enamel jewelry handmade by me in my studio in beautiful Santa Barbara, California.  I am also a distributor of a special dichroic paper called DicroSlide™ which I use prominently in my work.  For all you enamelists out there, please visit my page on creating dichroic enamels.  Glass fusers can check out tips for glass fusing with DicroSlide.

Dichroic enamels are a brand new thing – I developed the technique myself, and my work has been featured in two major jewelry magazines – Art Jewelry magazine, March 2009 issue, and Glass on Metal magazine, Volume 27, No. 2, April 2008 issue.

What is Enameling?  Enameling is the technique of fusing glass powder (enamel) onto metal, under very high heat in a kiln or using a torch.  I layer transparent enamels onto the metal surface one at a time, fusing each color to the metal in a kiln at 1450 °F.  Some of my enamels have a dichroic effect, in which the pattern subtly changes color as you turn the piece.  All my enamels are made with copper, my favorite metal for enameling.  Copper enjoys being feisty and has a strong voice in influencing how the finished enamel appears.  It's like having three brilliant but kind of crazy partners: the glass, the metal, and the heat.  Each finished enamel is truly a collaboration of those three energies, plus my own ren chai (human spirit).

What is Fused Glass?  Fused glass is glass that has been fired in a kiln at a high temperature (up to 1500 °F).  I stack colored or dichroic glass in layers, and fire them until the separate pieces begin to bond together.  I then anneal and slowly cool the newly fused glass over a period of 10 to 12 hours, which produces a strong finished product.

Dichroic glass is particularly beautiful.  Often referred to as "dichro" or "dicro," it appears to have additional colors when you turn it and view it from different angles.  A pendant may appear blue when you look at it straight on, but purple or even green when viewed from the side or at an angle.

I post my new work once a week or so, and you can buy DicroSlide, my dichroic enamels, or my fused glass jewelry from this website.  Thank you so much for your interest and for taking the time to visit.