About the Fused Glass Jewellery

I create all the jewellery personally by hand using skills taught in various art courses I have attended. The jewellery is sold in Craft fairs in and around Glasgow, with regular stalls at the Corinthian, Glasgow. The next one is on 2008-11-22. This web site is the result of positive feedback and is meant to give some background to my work. The site has now been moved to http://www.glassandsilverjewellery.co.uk. I display a small selection of my work in the Pictures & Prices page.


All the chains and fittings are Sterling Silver - except the bangles which are Plated Silver. I can convert any of the dangle earrings into screw ons with Sterling Silver fittings at craft fairs . Clip ons would have to be specially ordered

Sonya Leonard

Sonya Leonard at her jewellery stall

About the techniques used

All of the jewellery is handmade from a combination of layers of Art glass and dichroic glass. Dichroic glass is a multi-layer coating of quartz crystal and metal oxides vaporised onto either clear translucent or black opaque art glass, forming a very thin vibrantly coloured crystal structure on top. It was originally created for the aerospace industry and is now used in decorative glass work because of it vibrant colours - 45 in all.


The main characteristic of dichroic glass is that it has a transmitted colour and a completely different reflective colour. These two colours also shift depending on the angle of view and the play of light on the glass. You will see this when you move a piece around. All the pieces of jewellery have been made of two or three, sometimes four layers of glass fused (i.e. heated) sometimes two or three times at very high temperatures in a kiln so that they form one solid piece. The skill is knowing the the correct temperature and length of time required for each piece.