Creating Amazing Colours

When a piece of art is created, people seldom ask how. They admire the piece, and many of them are eager to take it home. There they will display its beauty for friends and family, and they will take time out of each week to spend a minute or two gazing into the depths of the glass object they managed to find and purchase. Little do many of them know that creating amazing colors in glass was often the secret of masters in the craft that have now been shared throughout the world.

The addition of different minerals is often the way glass has been colored in centuries past, and those same ingredients are used today. Many of them are oxides, and others are sulfides. Chromium oxide can turn a mixture of clear glass into the beautiful emerald color adored by many. For those who prefer a deep blue that has tinges of violet, a dash of cobalt oxide would be their favored ingredient.

It would seem to those uninitiated in the craft of creating beautiful glass that a red mineral might create that color, but those who had studied their art will add a dashes of gold chloride until they get the color perfect. Swirled with a mixture of sulfur, the glass will become yellow for those who want to enjoy that bright and beautiful color. Mixing molten glass that has been turned red with some bearing the brilliant yellow will give the artist a unique blend of colors in the chosen shape.

Today it does not take an expert in mineralogy to know the secrets of adding color to a base mixture of glass, but getting the colors just right does take experience. For those just starting out, it could take many tries before they really find the palette they want, but practice will make it easier.