No... hair jewelry was the rage for a very long time, until photography made portraits a better way to keep a loved one "near your heart". At that point in time, hair jewelry "morphed" into mourning jewelry. In either fashion, the hair that was required was long. It took 12 - 18" of hair to make a piece of jewelry. Often, the hair was bound to other hairs using beeswax, which was later removed during the setting process of boiling and baking. But the weaving of the hair was very similar to the art of Kumihimo, Japanese braiding. Not the same... but similar. The variety of patterns which could be obtained by the process is not unlike the variety of patterns we see in lacemaking today... although the finished result is not at all similar. An excellent book on the subject is "Collector's Encyclopedia of Hairwork Jewelry" by C. Jeanenne Bell, G. G., 1998, ISBN 1-57432-049-1
Clay Who dabbled in "Hairwork" very briefly on behalf of a local museum associated with the oldest cemetery in the city.... -- Clay Blackwell Lynchburg, VA USA -------------- Original message -------------- From: Tamara P Duvall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > On Nov 19, 2007, at 14:13, Janice Blair wrote: > > > Below is some correspondence I have been having with an artist who is > > looking for someone to do a hair bobbin lace project. > > His original message doesn't specify it's BL he's interested in; just > "lace": > > >> [...] I am about to embark on a new project using lace. [...] But is > >> it possible to make lace from human hair? > > If Victorian hair jewelry is his inspiration, he might have better luck > looking for people who make Needle Lace. The Embroiderers Guild, > perhaps? They use shorter lengths of "thread" than we tend to do. I'm > not sure that even the "long" (wig-length) strands he has access to > would be quite long enough. > -- > Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/ > Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) > > - > To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: > unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
