Implosion Pendants and How Glass Color is Made

This is probably the best pendant I've ever made. At least, it is the most technically correct and the colors came out exactly as I hoped they would. This is one of the many interesting characteristics of glass, when you use a color of glass it can be very difficult to predict how it will come out when it cools.

Glass gets its color from the different metals it it created with. Blue glass is made with silver and pink glass is made with gold. The use of these metals in colored glass can make them particularly expensive. When these colors are heated, as in the process of making these pendents, the flame (a mixture of oxygen and propane) causes the metals in the glass to oxidize and reduce depending on the mixture of propane and oxygen.

It can take years to master color application in glass and those knowledgeable in the process can actually create their own colors by making up formulas with metals.

The pink dots in the background of this piece come from a pink glass rod made with gold in its formula. The yellow, green, and blue swirls in the foreground come a color called Silver Strike. The silver is most noticeable on tips of the swirls where blue can be seen.

When using Silver Strike I particularly like using black opaque glass as the background. This ensures a lovely contrast with the complex colors of Silver Strike.

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If you like my work, some of my pendants are for sale on Etsy for purchase: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SteveChadwickGlass?ref=profile_shopicon