HAIR ART - A BRIEF HISTORY AND EXPLANTION OF TECHNIQUES
Hair Art is an ages old art using hair to create a design or even the entire piece of jewelry using hair. There are several techniques that are used in the creation of these pieces and I am giving a brief description of them below.
The pictures on this page are antiques and used to show the beauty and heritage of this old art.
Sepia Technique
This is an antique brooch made using the sepia technique of finely chopped hair that is painted onto a background. It can form it's own design or be used to enhance a background design such as you see in this picture. I use the sepia technique to create my shapes in many cases, as it works well to form the shapes of the animals whose hair/fur is being used to create their image.
Table Work Bracelet & Earring Set
The table work technique is done by using a table with a hole in the center. It uses weights at one end of the hair and a center counterweight to weave the lengths of hair over forms to create jewelry such as you see in this picture. It takes very long hair to create jewelry using this technique so it fell out of fashion when people started to wear their hair in shorter styles.
Palette Work or Cutwork
This is the palette work technique which is created by laying the hair flat and up against each other, and then gluing them to a base similar to tissue paper. When dried, different shapes are cut out and formed into a pattern which is glued together. This technique is one I use extensively in my jewelry as it is very versatile and long hair is not needed to create most designs.
Hair Flower Wreaths
Hair flower wreaths were formed by joining many different flowers created using the hair flower technique. This is done by wrapping the hair around different sized rods, and kind of "stitching" it into place by using a very fine wire to wrap it in loops along the bottom. These individual lengths of looped hair are then formed into the shapes needed to create the flower they are creating. Once again, longer hair is needed for this art form. Huge wreaths were created and placed in churches at one time using the hair of the entire congregation. As the congregation grew so did the wreath!
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THIS OLD ART
Hair art was created most commonly from the middle ages through the 1800's. It was believed back then that hair jewelry increased one's love if someone was wearing a piece of hair jewelry from their loved one, and it was seen as a way of wearing one's love if the person was deceased. A memorial they could wear on their person.
Godey's Lady's Book was a magazine published in the 1800's and it printed patterns and offered starter kits with the necessary tools for sale to create hair jewelry in one's own home. Mark Campbell was the author of a book titled "Self Instructor in the Art of Hairwork" and it has instructions on hair art and other crafts from that time period. This book is available to purchase even today. These instructions enabled the average person to learn and create these pieces on their own.
During the Victorian era, Queen Victoria wore many pieces of hair jewelry and it became very popular due to her interest in this old art. During this time it is said that mourning jewelry reached it's peak of popularity and there was great sentiment attached to it. There are many fabulous pieces still in existence today that were created during that time. Many museums such as the Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota have fantastic collections on display. Leila 's Hair Museum in Independence, Missouri has probably the largest collection of these hair pieces possibly in the world.
MY BACKGROUND IN THIS OLD ART
I was born and raised in St. Paul, MN. Our family belonged to the American Swedish Institute and I spent many many hours there as a child. The Institute had/has a huge collection of hair art that was created and donated by the Swedish people who lived and/or moved into the area. I was (and still am) fascinated by the intricacy of the designs in these old pieces and always wonder about their creators and the history of whose hair was used. Nowadays a person who wants to view these old pieces at the Institute has to make an appointment to see them as they are kept in archives. It is well worth a visit to the Institute if you are in the area and have time to visit. It has much more than just the hair art to see.
Back in the 1950 and 60's the Minnesota State Fair had a huge display of hair art in the Women's Pavilion. Some of the wreaths were HUGE and I remember being in awe of the size of them. No one I knew was creating pieces like these. People were still knitting and crocheting, doing embroidery, and making quilts, but this was an "unknown" skill. That made it even more interesting to me to find out what it was all about.
I started making these pieces myself over twenty years ago and am self taught. I bought the book I mentioned above, Mark Campbell's Artof Hairwork and just practiced until I learned the different techniques. I enjoy creating the Sepia Painting and the Palette Work techniques the best and that is what I am creating in today's world. People started to ask me to make things for them, and that is how this all began.