Vitrigraph: Gravity and Hot Glass

Have you ever seen vitrigraph glass? Hot about a pot melt? Similar techniques for handling melted glass. Basically glass is placed in a terra cotta flower pot ( german made so it can handle high temperatures) that has a hole in the bottom, placed in a kiln, raised up to allow the glass to flow through the hole once it reaches the proper temperature. With a pot melt there’s a mold or kiln shelf under the raised pot to catch the glass as it flows out. For vitrigraph the kiln must be raised up rather high to allow the glass to almost drip out of the kiln. The kiln used for this must have no bottom. It’s placed on kiln shelves that have been separated enough for the glass to pass by. I’ve seen the kilns raised up with a forklift. Also on a scaffolding unit. One of my glass buddies, Larry Cunningham has come up with a unit that attaches to the wall so you can almost do this at home. HIs unit is the Turbo Lift.

leigh-larry

I’ve been fortunate enough to participate with Larry and my other glass buddy, Leigh Adams in a class we like to call “Extreme Vitrigraph”. When Leigh and Larr do it it’s called “Dancing with Glass’, when I’m there it’s Extreme…we add my torches to the mix to embellish the pieces that are pulled from the kiln. Check out this web site, www.glass-fusing-made-easy.com to get a bit more insight in the process. I’ll talk with Larry in a future blog to have him explain his vitirgraph kiln. In the meantime enjoy the dance with glass. Check it out with this video of the Turbo Lift, his vitrigraph kiln.

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Whether you celebrate Flag Day (June 14 in the United States, it honors the day in 1777 that the American flag was officially adopted) or just want to do a flag unit study, there are lots of interesting flags around the world that you can talk about.

For example, did you know there’s one flag that isn’t a rectangle? The flag of Nepal is the only national flag that isn’t quadrilateral (Switzerland and Vatican City both have flags that are square). Nepal’s flag is shaped like two stacked triangles, which represent the Himalayan Mountains, as well as the two main national religions, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Several flags feature animals, mostly lions, bears and eagles. Two flag feature dragons. The flag of Bhutan has a representation of a Druk, a mythical thunder dragon, while the flag of Wales has a Welsh dragon.

Paraguay is the only country recognized by the United Nations that has a flag that is different on the front and back. The flag has red, white and blue horizontal stripes, with the nation’s coat of arms on the front and the seal of the treasury on the back. (Oregon is the only US state with a flag that is different on the front and back. The front shows a seal with an eagle, 33 stars for its number in the union, and the words “state of Oregon” and the date it was admitted, 1859. The back has a picture of a beaver.)

The flag of Denmark, known as the Dannebrog, is the oldest continuously used flag in the world. Legend has it the flag fell from the sky during a battle in 1219 in present-day Estonia, helping the Danish to an unexpected victory. Because of that, it was adopted as the national flag and has been in use for more than 800 years. Denmark’s flag is celebrated on June 15 each year, called Valdemar’s Day after the king leading the crusade where the flag allegedly appeared.

Purple is a rare color on national flags because it was historically expensive to produce. The only flags that use it (and it’s sometimes hard to see) are Dominica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Mexico and Spain. The Wiphala flag of Bolivia also contains purple.

There’s a fun page on Wikipedia that shows different flags arranged by design, so you can see all the tricolor flags, all the flags with stars, triangles, people and more. You can also look at flags by color.

If this has piqued your interest, maybe you’ll want to learn more about vexillology, the study of the history, design and symbolism of flags.

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