After ordering it and having it sit in my cupboard for a few months, I decided to test it out and see whether it might become a useful, cheaper alternative to normal dichroic glass.
The Dicro Slide comes packaged in a plastic sleeve with a small sheet of instructions. The instructions were easy to read and understand and it wasn't 'over packaged'. I purchased the Dicro Slide pack (a mixed pack of 4 plain colours) and used the clear/red tint which said it changes to burgundy/dark red after firing. Although I chose the plain versions, Dicro Slide does come in a few different patterns, although not as many as normal Dichroic glass.
The size of 1 piece of Dicro Slide is 4" square. I purchased the Dicro Slide pack from Delphi Glass (in the US but ships globally) for US$58.95 – that equals US$14.73 per piece (excluding shipping). A sheet of normal Dichroic glass of the same size starts from around US$17.95 per piece (excluding shipping). So from a price perspective it is definitely cheaper.
The manufacturer recommends the following process:
| Manufacturer's Procedure | What I did |
| Cut out the dicro slide into any shape you wish. | In my first test, I used two small cut-out stamps (of a foot and a frog) that are usually used for scrapbooking. |
| Next cut your glass and clean it | I cleaned my glass pieces with a mixture of vinegar, water and methylated spirits and a clean rag. |
| Soak the cut-out dicro pieces in about ¼ - ½ inch of clean water for about two minutes. | I left the first one (the feet) in for exactly two minutes and the frog I left in for about five minutes. Two minutes is definitely optimal (or even less - 1 minute is usually sufficient) otherwise the backing washes off making it more difficult to pickup/identify (especially if you have poor eyesight). |
| Position the pieces on your glass. |
In the first test I laid mine in between the bottom coloured piece and the top clear piece. |
| Fire as usual. | I fired the pieces in my small Evenheat 360F kiln using the 'small pieces firing schedule' from the book "A Beginners Guide to Kiln Formed Glass". |
The First Test Results
The results for my first test were a bit disappointing. Sandwiched between the clear and yellow coloured glass the Dicro Slide seemed to hardly change colour at all – they certainly didn't change to a "dark burgundy" which is what the packet said they would do. The change seemed too subtle. But I did get the cute little toes in detail.
The second issue was the black test piece: I used a ribbed black glass piece for the bottom and as the ribs flattened out during the fuse, the detail of the little Dicro Slide frog was lost. So I definitely recommend either using non-ribbed glass and/or a bigger piece of Dicro Slide (my frog was only about 1cm).
Given my disappointment with these initial small pieces, I decided to try a bigger set of pieces on a large dip plate in a different Dicro Slide colour - this time I used the 'Rainbow' Dicro Slide (plain).
Again I followed pretty much the same overall process above but made these changes:
- Size: the Dicro Slide pieces (and the glass) were much bigger.
- Position: I positioned the Dicro slide on top of the clear glass (i.e. it wasn't sandwiched between two pieces of glass).
- Kiln: because this was a bigger plate and I was firing another plate at the same time, I used my Evenheat GTS 2541 (a large oval kiln).
- Temperature: this time I already had a fully fused piece of glass I wanted to slump into a dip plate mold - so the temperate was at slumping range rather than fusing range (I used the Slump Firing Schedule on page 48 of the book "A Beginners Guide to Kiln Formed Glass").
- Cutting: instead of using scrapbooking punches I used freehand and also some funky shaped sissors that cut wavy edges (again you can find these in scrapbooking supplies shops).
Second Test Results
When I cut the items this time around, I found because the pieces were bigger they were harder to slide off and keep from folding over before I got them on the glass. I also found if I fiddled with them too much the Dicro started coming off in the water - it looked like children's glitter. After a little while I got the hang of taking the piece of the water and flipping it over directly onto my fingers, giving it a small dab with paper towel and then flipping it again and pressing immediately onto the glass. Then I just dabbed any more excess water while it was on the glass.
One thing that was great about the Rainbow Dicro Slide: laying on the table the colour looked very purple/blue - I was a bit worried the purple and blue wasn't going to go very nicely with the green glass. But once I positioned it on the green glass it picked up the green colour and reflected shades of green and aqua blue. Nice!
As you may be able to see in the picture below, some of the dicro seemed to come off in 'glitter' form on the the glass. I rubbed the dicro with medium pressure to see if it would come off and it seemed to stick. This may be because I applied the 'wrong side' of the Dicro slide (at the start I was flipping the pieces around trying to get the edges unstuck so I lost track of which side was 'up'). Also note I didn't test it in a repeated wash scenario like a dishwasher. Considering this is a dip plate, in the future I would sandwich the Dicro Slide between top and bottom glass just to be absolutely sure it doesn't become a food hazard.
Final Thoughts
Probably one of the big benefits of Dicro Slide is that it doesn't have a COE so you can use it for whatever glass COE you work in.
Also the thing that most annoys me about normal Dichroic glass is the chipping that occurs when you cut it with power tools – or even sometimes with a standard glass cutter or when trimming with a grinder. This doesn't happen with the Dicro Slide and you can get some really fine cuts – the feet I cut out had tiny toes and they came out fine on the non-ribbed glass. Also although it looks very delicate, it dealt with my clumsy pushing and prodding to get it into place with a knitting needle, without breaking.
On the negative side of things, I would like to be able to create a massive design for a large feature plate and the current size doesn't allow that without connecting cut outs together.
I also searched the internet and found one person say that they kept the Dicro Slide in the cupboard for a year and they started to deteriorate. I hadn't had them this long so I can't confirm this is the case – but I'll be using all of mine way before a year passes!
However overall, Dicro Slide is fun to be able to cut the patterns with just scissors and your hands and I'd recommend it as an alternative to Dichroic for beginners that is cheaper and/or that can give you very fine detail on non-ribbed glass.
As an alternative it would also be fun to create a Dicro Slide project with your children or grandchildren to teach them about glass art (I'd recommend ages 8+ : any younger and they may not be able to handle the Dicro appropriately).
Where to Buy
Delphi Glass sells Dicro Slide starting from US$58.95 for a mixed four-pack (which equals US$14.73 per piece, excluding shipping).
