Monday, April 23, 2012

Suncatchers and Eagle update

Everyone's seen one -- those cute mini stained-glass designs hanging from a small suction cup hook in a window. On a sunny day, from just the right angle, the sun shines on them, dispersing the light in a rainbow of colors. They are called suncatchers, and the glass they are made from has a long and rich history. Although glass has existed in nature since the beginning of time, in the form of rocks that have melted and solidified under high heat and pressure, it was "discovered" by Phoenician merchants in Syria about 5,000 BC. Legend tells how they cooked in open pots over blocks of nitrate, that when melted by the heat of the fire, mixed with the sand below and formed a liquid. When the liquid cooled -- opaque glass! Through the ages, the craft of using glass advanced. The earliest glass beads date to around 3,500 BC, and fragments of glass vases from the 16th century have been found. Hollow glass pots appeared around 1,500 BC in Egypt. Tablets found in Assyria dating back to 650 BC show instructions for making glass. A significant achievement occurred between 27 BC and AD 14 , when glassblowing was invented. But it wasn't until around AD 100 when glass was first used for decorative and architectural purposes by the Romans, who made crude glass windows. Another major achievement happened between the 11th and 13th centuries with the discovery of how to make glass sheets. During this period, the art of making colored glass appeared and stained glass had its origins. Stained glass is a series of smaller pieces of clear and colored glass joined by lead strips, first used widely during the Middle Ages to depict religious scenes and saints in churches. As the craft developed, color and construction techniques advanced. Stained glass was seen less and less in new churches and more in commercial and residential settings, and in much smaller works than ornate windows. In America, perhaps the most well-know user of stained glass was Louis Tiffany, creator of the famous Tiffany lamps.

The eagles have gotten bigger they are huge and so cute. They look like their eight weeks old they could be younger or older but i cant figure it out. they will soon be leaving the nest judging by the size of them then ill never see them again its sad but happy in  way that they'll be able to be free. Remember you can see them at www.alcoa.com/eaglecam.

2 comments:

  1. nice story on about the suncatch that you wrote about.learn me more about thing that i did not know about. And about the eagles that was nice of you putting the link so that i could go see what they look like

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  2. Andrea,

    Very nice history on sun catchers. You could have mentioned that you painted one for art class so that we could have put up a picture. Also you had a run on sentence in the eagle paragraph.

    Word count: 409 words
    Score 24/25
    1pt run on sentence.

    love mommy :)

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