The main characteristic of dichroic glass is that it has a transmitted colour and a completely different reflected colour, as certain wavelengths of light either pass through or are reflected causing an array of colour to be visible. Furthermore, these two colours shift depending on the angle of view.

A plate of dichroic glass can be fused with other glass in multiple firings. Due to variations in the firing process, individual results can never be exactly reproduced, so each piece of fused dichroic glass is unique.