For the American market, figures were blown depicting comic book characters as well as patriotic subjects such as Uncle Sams, eagles, and flags. Glassblowers have held on to the old molds. Glass ornaments are still created from these old molds.
A clear glass tube is heated over an open flame. It is then inserted into a mold. The glassblower then blows into the end of the tube. The glass expands to fill the mold. The glass takes on the shape of the mold. It is cooled. A silver nitrate solution is swirled about inside the ornament. This gives the ornament a silver glow. The outside of the ornament is painted or decorated with metal trims, paper clippings, etc.
Cotton batting Christmas ornaments were popular during the years of the German Christmas toy and decoration boom at the turn of the century. They were exported in large numbers to the United States. These decorations suggested puffs of snow. Fruits and vegetables were popular subjects and often had a realistic appearance. African American and patriotic characters were fashioned for the American market. Some ornaments were used to hide boxes of candy.
Assembling these decorations was a cottage industry. Cotton batting was wound around a wire frame resembling a human or animal. A face was either painted on or a lithograph cut-out was affixed to the batting. Figures were given crepe paper costumes. Some were touched with glue and sprinkled with flakes of mica for a glittering appearance.
Dresdens are three-dimensional ornaments. They are made of paper, card, or cardboard. Dresdens were produced mostly in Dresden and Leipzig, Germany, from the 1860s to WWI. They were originally priced between 1 and 60 cents. Subjects included animals and birds, suns and moons, humans, carriages and ships, etc. Some Dresdens were flat, allowing the buyer to collect them in scrapbooks.
Positive and negative molds were set into a press. A moistened sheet of card was put into the press. The images were pressed. When they had dried, they were sent to cottage workers for the finishing touches. This involved separating the form-halves from the card, trimming ragged edges, and gluing the two halves together. The form was then gilded, silvered, or hand-painted. Sometimes a small gift or sweet was put into the form. Forms were usually no larger than five inches.
Bradwell-on-Sea
Bradwell-on-Sea is a village and civil parish in Maldon District, Essex, England. In 2001 there were 877 people living in Bradwell-on-Sea.
Burnham-on-Crouch
Burnham-on-Crouch is a town and civil parish in Maldon District, Essex, England. In 2001 there were 7759 people living in Burnham-on-Crouch. Burnham-on-Crouch is on the banks of the River Crouch.
Cold Norton
Cold Norton is a village and civil parish in Maldon District, Essex, England. In 2001 there were 1103 people living in Cold Norton. Cold Norton is at the south-east end of the Danbury Ridge.
Drawbridge
A drawbridge is a bridge that can be moved in order to stop or allow passage across it. They were often built as part of medieval castles which had moats.
Modern drawbridges are often built across large, busy waterways. They can be lifted to allow large ships to pass or lowered to allow land vehicles or pedestrians to cross.
Edna May Oliver
Edna May Oliver (originally Edna May Nutter; 9 November 1883 – 9 November 1942) was an American actress. She performed primarily on stage and in movies. She usually played tartly-tongued spinsters in her movies. Her notable movie roles included playing Mrs. Tracy Wyatt in "Cimarron", Aunt March for "Little Women" in 1933 and The Red Queen for "Alice in Wonderland", also in 1933.
Oliver was born in Malden, Massachusetts. She died following an intestinal blockage at age 59 in Malibu, California.
Braconidae
The Braconidae are a family of parasitoid wasps. They are one of the richest families of insects: there are between 50,000 and 150,000 species worldwide. The species are grouped into 45 subfamilies and about 1,000 genera.
Most braconids are parasitoids (both external and internal) on other insects. Their victims are the larvae of Coleoptera, Diptera, and Lepidoptera, and also some hemimetabolous insects such as aphids and bugs.
Most species kill their hosts, though some cause the hosts to become sterile and less active. The endoparasitoid species lay their eggs inside the victim. They have elaborate adaptations which improve larval survival inside the host. They have endosymbiotic viruses which disable the host immune defences. These polydnaviruses are often used by the wasps instead of a venom cocktail.
The DNA of the wasp actually has bits which are the templates for the viral particles. A study suggested these arrangements had started about 100 million years ago.
These viruses suppress the larva's immune system and allow the parasitoid to grow inside the host undetected. Through the evolutionary history of being used by the wasps, these viruses apparently have become so modified, they appear unlike any other known viruses today. Because of this highly modified system of host immunosuppression, a high level of parasitoid-host specificity is not surprising. In other words, the viruses need to be a bit different for every host species.
Parasitism on adult insects (particularly on Hemiptera and Coleoptera) also happens. Members of two subfamilies are known to form galls on plants.
Little Miss Broadway
Little Miss Broadway is a 1938 musical comedy-drama movie. Shirley Temple plays an orphaned girl named Betsy Brown. Edna May Oliver plays Sarah Wendling. The movie is about an apartment landlord who demands certain occupants pay $2,500, or move out. This movie is also about adoption and musical plays. Critics gave the movie very positive reviews.
Jane Darwell
Patti Woodward (or Jane Darwell; October 15, 1879 – August 13, 1967) was an American actress. She appeared in over 170 theatrical movies and on television and stage. She played the Bird Woman in the 1964 Disney movie "Mary Poppins". She played a grandmother or housekeeper in many movies in which Shirley Temple acted. She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress when she played Ma Toad in the movie "The Grapes of Wrath" in 1940.
Darwell was born as Patti Woodward in Missouri. She died from a heart attack at age eighty-seven in California.
Tony Thompson
Anthony T. "Tony" Thompson (15 November 1954 – 12 November 2003) was an American session drummer. He is best known as the drummer of the band The Power Station and a member of Chic.
Thompson was raised in Queens, New York. His mother was Trinidadian and father was of Antiguan descent. He first played drums for the group Labelle, and then for a short time was a member of the band Ecstasy, Passion & Pain. While he was the drummer for Chic, he played music with many artists such as Jody Watley, Madonna, Rod Stewart, Adam Ant, Mick Jagger and David Bowie.
Thompson died of renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer) in Los Angeles. It was just two months after his bandmate Robert Palmer died from a heart attack. Thompson was a member of the band Non-Toxic at the time of his death. He was survived by his wife, Patrice Jennings, and two children. On 19 September 2005, Thompson and the rest of the Chic band members were inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame.
Dengie
Dengie is a village and civil parish in Maldon District, Essex, England. In 2001 there were 135 people living in Dengie.
Goldhanger
Goldhanger is a village and civil parish in Maldon District, Essex, England. In 2001 there were 647 people living in Goldhanger. Goldhanger has a pub called The Chequers Inn. It is located on the north bank of the Blackwater Estuary.
I'll Be Seeing You
I'll be Seeing You is a drama movie released in 1944. Ginger Rogers is Mary Marshall; Shirley Temple is Barbara Marshall. The movie is about social outcasts, romance and Christmas. The movie was released in January 1945 in United States theaters. It performed extremely well at the box office.
Great Braxted