http://wheremourningmeetsart.blogspot.com/2012/04/victorian-mourning-hair-art.html
This post features a book full of hair mementos from a collection of family and/or friends. These pages each represent a simple example of hairwork, but they show how hair was symbolically important to the remembrance of loved ones. Definitely a post (and blog!) worth checking out.
How gorgeous is this?
Just look at that, what a beautiful piece of professional hairwork! The hairwork structure is adorned with gold, turquoise, garnet, and pearls.
Despite the rather opulent look of this piece, it was likely a piece of mourning jewelry. The FIDM site describes the symbolism of the piece as follows:
Its floral symbolism and stone selection signify that it was worn at a time of mourning: the thorny acanthus leaves set with a mauve garnet connote the pain of separation at death, the turquoise-mounted flowers on either side are forget-me-nots, and the pearl trimmed buds represent the tears of the gods.1
While this piece really stood out and just had to be highlighted, you can find many more items through our Pinterest and Flickr sites.
Let me know in the comments below if there are any hairwork pieces that really stand out to you!
I saw this book on WorldCat but, since there were only original versions not reprints, I wasn’t able to get it through inter-library loan to have a look.
Enter the magic of the digital world!
THE BOOK HAS BEEN DIGITIZED HERE
Voila! The book is available on archive.org, for free, in all its beautifully designed glory!
There are some especially interesting snake designs that I plan to use in an upcoming post about the symbolism of snakes in Victorian mourning jewelry.
It is likely that many people searching for information on hairwork and hair art will quickly locate hairwork.com. This site has maintained an online presence since the 1990s. Their primary focus are users who want to create their own hairwork.
A portion of the homepage of hairwork.com.
To this end, the front page advertizes human hair for sale, horse hair in both natural and colored forms, kits to make hair flowers, and accoutrements needed to create hair jewelry, and even the traditional tables used to create the common Victorian forms of tube-like hairwork.
Here’s some colored mohair for sale at hairwork.com. Can you just imagine a bracelet made in the Victorian table-worked style, but in one of these vibrant colors?! #shutupandtakemymoney
There are many books listed on the site, as well. There are some that pertain directly to Victorian hairwork, while others talk about more general braiding and embroidery techniques. There are also some on related historical topics. When you click on one of the books they have featured on their page, you’ll see a description of the book and its contents, usually with some images from the book as well.
Another great section of the site features the stories of hair collectors.
The “Collector’s Stories” section of the site features several different stories. Among those featured are these three women, Leila Cohoon (l), Marlys Fladeland (r), Ruth Gordon (t). (http://hairwork.com/collecto.htm)
I especially enjoyed reading about Marlys Fladeland’s introduction to hairwork that eventually led her to form the Victorian Hairwork Society.
The only drawback to the site is the current layout and organization. There are many different sections and hyperlinks scattered across the homepage. This can make it a bit difficult to easily see what the site has to offer. The site is 17 years old though, so likely some of the disorganization just comes from the organic growth of the site over the years and the limitations of form during the years the site was created.
Overall, hairwork.com is a classic that offers something to see, whatever your particular interest in hairwork is. There’s much more to explore than I have touched on, so be sure to check it out yourself!
This site is being developed as a part of a graduate history course entitled “History in the Digital Age.”
The site’s goal is to serve as a central location for both digital and traditional sources of information about the art of hairwork.
You can find the initial plans for this site in this document.