How glass gets its colour
Glass on its own is nearly colourless. Every colour in the BABILAM collection is the result of small amounts of other materials melted into the batch — a craft that glassmakers have refined for centuries.
Why clear glass looks blue-green
Look at the thick base of Frost Gold or Crystal Flow and you will see a faint aquamarine cast. That tint comes mostly from traces of iron, which is present in almost all sand. In a thin window pane you barely notice it; in a solid column several centimetres thick, it gathers into that cool, watery colour. We like it, so we keep it.
Amber and smoke
Ambers and browns are traditionally produced by combinations of iron, sulphur and carbon in the melt, which is why the colour can shift from honey to cognac depending on exactly how the batch is fired. Smoked greys are typically produced by blending small quantities of several colouring oxides so that no single hue dominates — the result absorbs a little of every colour and reads as neutral.
Pinks and roses
Some of the most prized pinks and rubies in the history of glass have been coloured with tiny amounts of gold, dispersed so finely that it turns the glass red or pink rather than golden. Selenium and other compounds are also used for pinks. The exact recipe affects not only the colour but how it changes between daylight and warm evening light — which is why Orchid Column looks cooler at noon and warmer after dark.
Colour in glass is not paint. It runs all the way through, so it changes with thickness, light and time of day.
Why colour varies, slightly, from piece to piece
Because colour lives inside the glass, it deepens where the wall is thicker and lightens where it is thinner. Hand-formed columns are never perfectly uniform, so a gradient like Amber Root's will fall a little differently on each lamp. For pairs, we make both pieces from the same batch to keep them as close as the material allows.
