Reflective Materials: Glass Microspheres
- Efrat Barak
- 15 בינו׳
- זמן קריאה 6 דקות
How one tiny material opens up big questions around safety, sports, fashion, and art.
A few years ago, I took part in a collaboration with the economic attaché of the Japanese Embassy in Israel, aimed at creating new connections between Japan’s manufacturing industry and potential clients in Israel in the field of materials. My role was to identify and manage contacts with Japanese companies – a professional adventure that turned out to be both fascinating and enriching.
As I launched into the project, I searched for companies producing unique materials that were either unknown in Israel or unfamiliar to the general public. I discovered a wide array of captivating materials and material technologies, from giant corporations to small family-owned factories and independent studios working in limited series. One of the most interesting materials I encountered was tiny, perfectly round glass beads, produced by several major Japanese companies. At first, their most striking feature was their aesthetic and visual value. I had no idea what they were used for, but their unique look sparked my curiosity. I did what I always do with new and exciting materials: I began to investigate.
I found that glass microspheres (or microbeads) have a wide range of applications, primarily related to their optical properties. They are often used in warning and directional signage due to their reflective qualities. I quickly realized these same beads are embedded in reflective films and sheets for protective clothing, such as those produced by 3M. In this case, the beads are embedded within a polymer matrix.
A matrix, in this context, is the base material that holds all other components of a composite material. Think of it as a flexible structure with fillers added to alter its properties. In the case of 3M’s reflective sheets, the polymer matrix is embedded with glass microspheres that function as an optical additive, giving the material entirely new functionality. Thanks to their spherical structure, these beads produce a deeper, more intense reflectivity compared to flatter, more common and cheaper particle fillers.
Since then, these microspheres have joined the large encyclopedia of materials I work with daily. They appear now and then in interesting and surprising contexts. Here are just a few:
Functional and fashionable wear
In 2016, the studio ISHU launched the “Anti-Paparazzi Scarf”, part of what they call Anti-Flash Fashion Technology. The scarf is printed with a reflective pattern that makes it almost impossible to photograph someone wearing it with a flash. More than just a functional or stylish item, the scarf received broad international coverage across fashion, entertainment, gossip, and even tech magazines. It’s a compelling case study that connects a new, market-available material with a smart design application, resulting in a simple and effective product story. This scarf marked a turning point where reflective materials became integral to fashion. From there, their use only grew.
Major sportswear brands like Adidas and Asics now incorporate reflective films and prints containing microspheres in nearly all their products. These might appear in printed labels that simultaneously communicate brand info and increase wearer visibility. In high-performance sports shoes, the new material technologies allow for broader reflective coverage, embedded discreetly within flexible, colorful components that integrate seamlessly into the design, remaining hidden until illuminated. Anyone who runs or cycles alongside roads knows how important reflectivity is. But when responsibility lies 100% with the user, it doesn’t always happen. When materials and design make reflectivity an inherent feature, it becomes a natural and constant safety element rather than a task. It can save lives.
Today, reflective materials in textiles are widely accessible. Not just in premium athletic gear, but also from smaller brands: lightweight reflective jackets, knit hats, reflective shoelaces, or iron-on patches for bags and clothes. These materials add aesthetic and especially functional value.
Why reflective materials matter
Material, technology, and design advancements have made today’s reflectives much more comfortable, lightweight, and attractive than they were 20–30 years ago. As a result, they’re now embedded in more and more products and have even become desirable in their own right. But this isn’t just about image or fashion. It addresses real safety needs arising from global trends.
Over the past decades, the global population has grown steadily. Combined with urban density, this has led to crowded public spaces and increased interpersonal interactions – raising new challenges for road safety and the need to identify objects and people in urban environments.
At the same time, modern lifestyles have shifted from physically active work to screen-based jobs, with more car use and sedentary leisure activities. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), these lifestyle changes are a major contributor to chronic illness and declining quality of life.
As a response, more people have adopted active habits, like leisure-time physical activity (LTPA), often in shared public spaces like parks and roads. This makes it crucial to design materials that meet aesthetic expectations, support activity, and also increase safety.
Material needs a meaning
As someone working with materials for over a decade through a design lens, I know that understanding a material’s true meaning goes beyond technology or industry. Materials also operate in experiential, cultural, and aesthetic domains, reflecting values, stirring emotions, and offering new ways to think, feel, and act.
As I mentioned earlier, my first encounter with these glass beads left a visual impression long before I understood their practical potential. It was instinctive – and that impression continues to echo in various artworks I’ve encountered where microspheres, either on their own or embedded in other materials, create poetic, emotional, or critical statements.
Artworks often serve as platforms for material exploration that yield surprising results. Though they begin as artistic expressions, they sometimes lay the groundwork for new functional innovations – discoveries that industrial research might never reach. It’s a reminder that culture in all its forms isn’t a luxury, but a core way we understand and shape the world.
One of the most striking uses of glass beads in art is in internationally recognized artist's Kohei Nawa PixCell series. In these sculptures, he coats taxidermy animals, everyday objects, and iconic figures with dense layers of glass spheres in varying sizes. Sometimes, synthetic resins are added to bind elements and enhance the sense of depth.
This added layer transforms how we see the object beneath. The spheres act like miniature lenses that magnify, blur, or distort specific details, making the original form disappear or re-emerge from a new angle. Nawa discusses how digital imagery culture alters our perception of biological forms (like us) and the need to reinterpret this hybrid reality. His work is also a tactile exploration of perception, distortion, and transformation – showing how a basic material like glass can, through structure and application, render the familiar unfamiliar.
From a practical standpoint, we can relate Nawa’s work to industrial uses of microscopic glass or multilayer coatings: safety films, reflectives, smart vision tech. The difference is that Nawa isn’t guided by functional need, but by the desire to generate sensory and conceptual experiences through material.
A more immediate, personal encounter with these microspheres came in Orpheus, an installation by Israeli artist Uri Weinstein, shown recently at the Nahum Gutman Museum. It featured near-human figures clad in robes made of reflective fabric. In normal lighting, the material appeared soft and gray. Under a camera flash, it lit up, canceling the rest of the scene and heightening the tension between presence, technological mediation, and physical visibility. Weinstein’s choice of material powerfully illustrates how materials can provoke us – they change the way we see, move, and react.
This type of reflective textile is often used in fashion and safety gear, like jackets and bags. It’s a special and versatile material that looks quite plain at first glance. A sample of it lives in my material collection, which I’ve built with one principle in mind: direct sensory experience is essential for understanding a material. Beyond technical data, what shapes our perception is physical interaction – light play, texture, and the feedback a material gives. I even documented this textile through a microscope, where the tiny beads embedded in the polymer matrix are clearly visible. From that angle, it’s easy to see why such materials spark interest in both creative and functional fields.
