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Immortelle (cemetery)
An immortelle is a long-lasting flower arrangement placed on graves in cemeteries. They were originally made from natural dried flowers (which lasted longer than fresh flowers) or could be made from artificial materials such as china and painted plaster of paris or beads strung on wire arrangements. Unless made of a highly durable material (e.g. china), they would often be enclosed in a glass container (known as globes) to protect them from the weather. In some cases, they were embedded into the grave itself (e.g. on the concrete over the grave) while others were merely placed on or by the grave. In '' Life on the Mississippi'', Mark Twain comments on burial practices in New Orleans: ''"They bury their dead in vaults, above the ground. ... Fresh flowers, in vases of water, are to be seen at the portals of many of the vaults: placed there by the pious hands of bereaved parents and children, husbands and wives, and renewed daily. A milder form of sorrow finds its inexpensive and las ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ceramic Immortelle, Mt Beppo Apostolic Cemetery, 2005
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, and brick. The earliest ceramics made by humans were pottery objects (''pots,'' ''vessels or vases'') or figurines made from clay, either by itself or mixed with other materials like silica, hardened and sintered in fire. Later, ceramics were glazed and fired to create smooth, colored surfaces, decreasing porosity through the use of glassy, amorphous ceramic coatings on top of the crystalline ceramic substrates. Ceramics now include domestic, industrial and building products, as well as a wide range of materials developed for use in advanced ceramic engineering, such as in semiconductors. The word "''ceramic''" comes from the Greek word (), "of pottery" or "for pottery", from (), "potter's clay, tile, pottery". The earliest known ment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
