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French vase features unique flower design

The Daum glass factory of Nancy, France, is famous for its cameo glass, but that isn’t the only kind it made. When Jean Daum founded the factory in 1875, he made cut and enameled glass. His sons Auguste and Antonin started an art glass department in 1885, adapting to the art glass movement and art nouveau style of the time. The company started making more ornate types of glass like cameo glass and pate-de-verre. These were very old techniques, but newly popular as they experienced a resurgence in the 19th century. Pate-de-verre was made in ancient Egypt. The term means “glass ...

Wordless picture books

Did you know that sharing a wordless picture book can be a powerful way to build important literacy skills? Wordless picture books are books without text that rely solely on the pictures to convey the story. They are often dismissed as being too easy for any age reader. But they are outstanding tools to promote comprehension, vocabulary, listening skills, and they aid in the understanding of character development and story structure. A good reader needs good comprehension skills. They need to remember what has already happened and be able to predict what may happen next. Wordless ...

Ironstone pottery replacement for Chinese porcelain?

If you’re familiar with 19th-century ceramics, you probably know about ironstone. It was first made by English potter Miles Mason, who sold Chinese export porcelain and decided to make his own replacements for broken dishes. To make these replacements, he created a ceramic using slag from processing iron, which his son patented as ironstone in 1813. Heavy, durable and hard to chip, it was clearly different from porcelain, but quickly became a favorite for tableware. Many other potteries began making ironstone, especially in the Staffordshire district of England. Albion Pottery, also ...

Off the Shelf

I love a good story! The question that each of us must ask, however, is what makes a story good? Your mind might hark back to lessons in grammar and writing to come up with answers like flowing dialogue, relatable characters, character growth, conflict, an easy to follow structure, and so on. You might also point to less defined things like making you laugh, being unable to put it down, or making you forget the passage of time. All of these can be elements of a good story, and I’m sure you could have several stories come to mind from just these elements I’ve listed. We love hearing ...

Surviving Valentine’s collected as folk art

For many of us receiving paper valentines may be the stuff of school days -- a piece of the past. The tradition goes back much further, of course, and wasn’t always just for kids. The first commercial valentines in America were made by Esther Howland in Massachusetts in 1850. They were made with paper lace and featured written verses. Before then, people exchanged homemade valentines. Surviving examples are collected as folk art today. The one shown here, preserved in a frame with fabric backing, dates to the mid-1800s and sold at Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates for $279. It is an ...

Do Your Best Work

Yes, the library offers many recreational reads but you’ll find books and resources to support professional development, work and business at the library, too. Perhaps you want to improve your workplace culture, change a facet of your business, build stronger teams or bolster your emotional intelligence to become a stronger leader. Maybe you are curious about what cutting-edge organizations are doing to be successful. There is always something new to learn when you work with other people and the library can help. In addition to finding books at the library, check the library website at ...