Dichroic Glass-like Studies
I like the look of dichroic glass pieces and have thought of embedding them into my abstracts. They are a little expensive to buy and make, especially in the size I would like them to be.
I decided to try acrylic mediums and iridescent/interference paint as well as resin and mica pigments to create a similar look for my purposes.
Here are some sample dichroic glass pieces:
The photo here does not show the brightness and reflectivity of the colors.
Resin with mica pigments create the best resemblance to dichroic that I have found. Resin produces a clear, glass-like appearance more than acrylics do. Acrylic gels will turn a pale yellowish brown after a decade or two whereas resin will retain it’s glass-like clarity apparently ’till the end of time.
The mica pigments are also close to the richness, brightness and reflectivity of dichroic. The resin will also preserve the pigments better than acrylic gels and mediums.
Here are a couple samples of my resin with mica pigments experiments using silicone molds:
Here is holographic mylar strips in resin. Has lots of bubbles as I didn’t use a blow torch to remove the bubbles.
Here’s a test sample in resin and mica pigments (right photo) to try an recreate the look of the dichroic glass piece on the left:
Here is a sample/test board piece using a crumpled holographic sheet that was pealed off of a faux leather vinyl fabric roll. “Glued” over a bed of Extra Coarse Pumice gel with acrylic medium:
Here is a crumpled strip of the holographic material. The photo on the right has backlighting showing its blue secondary color.
The best acrylic medium based sample was using Tri-Art’s Liquid Mirror mixed with Acrylic gloss medium applied thickly with a knife. I painted over it with Golden Fluid Acrylic paint and gloss medium. I put a layer of resin over the top.
After experimenting a couple weeks, I think I got a couple techniques and materials that will do a good enough job getting the effects I am looking for.