Coating Surface Area
and Durability
Dichroic Aiko beads are coated twice with the Dichroic Coating, one coating on the “front” side and the other coating on the “back” side. The nature of Dichroic Coating is such that when the coating wraps around a curved surface, it shifts to colors of smaller and smaller wavelengths, because of the thinning of the layers.
When the Dichroic Coating wraps around the sides of the Aiko bead, the color shifts down the spectrum of the rainbow until it goes beyond the visible spectrum and cannot be seen anymore.
This results in a coating surface that is very bold on the front and back of the bead, but is blank on the sides of the bead. The pictures above show an Aiko bead that has been coated with Red Dichroic Coating.
The picture above (standing bead) shows the front of the bead where the coating has hit the bead head-on and the color is solid. The same picture shows also the side of the bead where there is a tiny band of coating that turns from Red (the Red actually appears Orange because you are viewing it from an angle, a phenomena which is explained in the “Choosing Colors” section) to Orange to Yellow to Green and finally to beyond the visible spectrum where it appears black.
This behavior is inherent to the application of the Dichroic Coating to curved surfaces and cannot be changed.
Also, Dichroic Coated beads are not recommended for applications involving highly abrasive environments. Although the Dichroic Coating itself is made from materials (quartz and metal oxides) which are tougher than the glass that they are coated on, the coating of curved surfaces can result in a softening of the coating around the areas which are curved.
Such is the nature of coating on curved surfaces. It is up to the artist to know best what type of abrasion their pieces will be subject to and to decide the appropriateness of using Dichroic Aikos in their pieces.
New customers are encouraged to purchase small amounts of Dichroic Coated Aikos to test under their specifications, before purchasing larger amounts.