In a message dated 12/7/03 9:28:38 AM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< Anyone who has experience with this - would you contact me please? I expect that the list would prefer that we go "private", as this isn't strictly lace-related. (well... it IS, but only in a very broad way!) >> -------- Dear Clay, It has been my experience that quite a few lacemakers have an interest in hairwork. One of my dearest lace friends actually uses hair from her horse to make jewelry. Therefore, I'm putting some resources and comments on Arachne. First, some research material: 1. "The Art of Hair Work - Hair Braiding and Jewelry of Sentiment with Catalog of Hair Jewelry" by Mark Campbell - reprinted by Lacis in 1989 with some excerpts from Godey's Lady's Magazine, ISBN 0-916896-31-5, 207 pages, soft cover, my copy was $20. 2. "Collector's Encyclopedia of Hairwork Jewelry - Identification and Values" by C. Jeanenne Bell, G.G. from Collector Books (Schroeder), P.O. Box 3009, Paducah, Kentucky 42002-3009, published in 1998, ISBN 1-57432-049-1, 335 pages, hard cover, my copy was $25. This definitely has a chapter on how it was made (about 50 pages). Extensive bibliograpy of additional references on page 330. Of the two books, I'd favor this one. 3. "The Magazine - Antiques", March 2001, has a wonderful 8-page article: "Hairwork of the nineteenth century" by Irene Guggenheim Navarro. You can probably borrow this from any first-rate public library or historical society. The cover picture is of a wonderful Chinese dragon embroidery, and you might actually enjoy the 10 pages devoted to very intricate silk stitchery! I recommend you do a Google search of Irene Guggenheim Navarro - you can read quite a bit there about Hairwork, and a bibliography. You can find out where collections are in the U.S. 4. Unfortunately, the dates of the OIDFA convention and the IOLI convention in 2000 conflicted, and very few Americans went to Lund Sweden. Those who did, met a hairworker in the sales room who was taking orders. I ordered several items, but did not have to pre-pay -- fortunately, as it turned out, because I never received the order! However, those of us who went on the post-convention tour were in for a treat. We visited a small village where the hairwork was done and is done - to this day. Young girls were making it. There was a historic film shown, which was *wonderful*! A little leaflet from the town says "Between the years 1830 and 1914 successful hair workers could appear as elegant ladies in satin crinolins and bonnets during their visits to foreign lands (to sell hairwork). Between travels they lived a hard life as farmer's wives on the small farms of Vamhus, bearing the responsibility of families and cattlebarns. With ease it seems, they moved between the different worlds and even made jewelry for royalty..." Interestingly, I remember from the film that the women were taught various languages so they could move comfortably in higher society. Queen Victoria was a customer. I just did a search on Vamhus, Sweden and found a guild listing half way down the first page that you might want to access: http://www.victorianhairartists.com/VictorianTableWork.html Here I would like to encourage our most creative skilled lacemakers -- to find lovely gold jewelry settings into which you can showcase very fine lace. Look at pictures of the antique hairwork, and let your imaginations run wild. -- you'll need to find the jewelry pieces first, and design your lace to fit the jewelry! Jeri Ames in Maine USA Lace and Embroidery Resource Center - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
