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 | Reflective Art A fabulous selection of Dichroic Glass Designer Jewellery and Textured Artwork Whilst studying Earth Science at LeicesterUniversity, Chellie (pronounced Shelley) Greenwood became fascinated with the vivid colours and subtle textures of crystals and minerals when revealed under the microscope, under crossed polarised light. The colours mesmerised Chellie out of her scientific era and placed her into the art and design world.
To capture the magical colour combinations, Chellie uses intricate textile processes and her highly original artwork has evolved over the years to successfully recreate the beauty of nature. During the course of exhibiting her artwork Chellie came across Dichroic Glass and instantly fell in love with it, as it appeared to her to be like her artwork but in glass form inspiring her to get into designing wearable contemporary jewellery using dichroic glass, she then formed her company Natural Reflections in September 2003 to wholesale both her textured artwork and contemporary dichroic glass jewellery.
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| Chellie works with a number of professional glass fusers and silversmiths who not only produce the work she designs but who also design pieces themselves which are unique to Natural Reflections UK. Natural Reflections is a member of ACID, the anti-copyrighting legal society set up for designers, the GA a division of the British Jewellery and Giftware Federation and is a member of Design Gap.Her work is now seen both in the UK and overseas from designer galleries to independent department stores.
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| What is Dichroic Glass ? Dichroic glass is the product of many thin layers of metallic oxides such as magnesium, titanium and silicon which is applied onto the surface of glass, this application takes place within a vacuum where the metallic oxides are vaporised by an electron beam. This stack of thin layers of metallic oxides has a total thickness of three to five millionths of an inch. These layers produce an "interference filter", creating the varied and unique colour characteristics we see. Since the filter is so thin, it has very little mechanical integrity of its own, and must be supported on a mechanically stable substrate. Glass is the ideal candidate for this substrate. Transparent, rigid and stable, it withstands high temperatures, and is not affected by moisture, solvents or most acids. "Dichroic Glass", is actually a piece of dielectric interference filter attached to the surface of a piece of glass. There is effectively no absorption of light by the materials, no dyes, paints or gels, all of the light energy is either transmitted, or reflected The resulting colours are very vivid, metallic and change according to the angle they are viewed from. They show an iridescence seen in Nature in Dragonfly Wings, Abalone Shells and Opal’s. Dichroic Glass gives the artist another medium for self expression and is only limited by the imagination and ingenuity of the artist.
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