VICTORIAN MOURNING LOCKS

By Mary Davis

 

In Independence, Missouri sits a unique little museum dedicated to hair art but not fancy hairdos as one might think. The hair in Leila’s Hair Museum are strands from dearly departed loved ones made into art. Before the advent of photography, people liked to keep a little something of someone who had passed on. We have all seen this type of thing in movies where a small hank of hair is kept in a locket.
 

People of bygone eras took this to whole new levels by saving a loved ones hair in a keepsake or weaving it into a work of art. This art form has been around since the 1500s and flourished during the Victorian era.
 

Not only would one find tresses in lockets but woven into bracelets, necklaces, rings, brooches, and other jewelry pieces to keep a loved one close.
 

Originally, these fancy hair art jewelry pieces were only affordable to the very wealthy being created by master craftsmen. By the mid 1800s, women were creating hair art at home. Books and instructional guides were written on the craft. Popular magazines of the time, like Godey’s Lady’s Book, had printed patterns for hair art and offered starter kits with the tools needed for the craft. This made hair art mementos affordable for the average person.

These memorial tokens weren’t relegated to jewelry only. Wall art was created with hair. Sometimes the hair was incorporated into the art and other times the hair was the art.

Hair wreathes like this one would represent generations of a family. Each time a relative passed away, a piece of that person’s hair would be added to the wreath. Hair was twisted with wire to help it hold its shape.

Can you imagine all the DNA in a piece like this?
 

Testing on hair cut from Beethoven’s head in 1827 showed his life-long illness was due to lead poisoning.

Unlike a lot of other natural fibers, hair doesn’t decay over time. It can last for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. On the other hand, the gum used to glue the hair together does decay, resulting in the piece loosing its integrity and the hair coming loose or moving within a piece.

On the far right side, you can see in this one where the hair has come loose and is gone now due to degraded glue.
 

Some famous people whose hair has been saved in some of these hair art pieces are George and Martha Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Webster, Aaron Burr, Jenny Lind, Queen Victoria, Elvis Presley, and Michael Jackson to name a few.

In this video, you can take a look around Leila's Hair Museum.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOvArYUyPQc)

Do you think this sort of thing is cool or creepy?
 

Would you want your hair preserved in jewelry or wall art for generations to come?

THE DAMSEL’S INTENT (The Quilting Circle Book 3) #TheDamselsIntent #HistoricalRomance #FreeKU #KU #ChristianRomance
Can Nicole learn to be enough of a lady to snag the handsome rancher?
   Nicole Waterby heads down the mountain to fetch herself a husband, not realizing women don’t wear trousers or carry a gun. She has a lot to learn. Rancher Shane Keegan has drifted from one location to another to find a place to belong. When Nicole crosses his path, he wonders if he can have love, but he soon realizes she’s destined for someone better than a saddle tramp. Will love stand a chance while both Nicole and Shane try to be people they’re not?

Free on Kindle Unlimited, or $2.99 to buy ebook.

Get it here: https://www.amazon.com/Damsels-Intent-Quilting-Circle-Book-ebook/dp/B089DTXDCN/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=The+Damsel%27s+Intent&qid=1590863747&s=books&sr=1-2

MARY DAVIS s a bestselling, award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her 2018 titles include; "Holly and Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection, Courting Her Amish Heart, The Widow’s Plight, Courting Her Secret Heart , “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection , and Courting Her Prodigal Heart . 2019 titles include The Daughter's Predicament and "Bygones" in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.

Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-five years and two cats. She has three adult children and two incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:

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Victorian Hair Art

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By Marilyn Turk

When I was doing research for my next book, Rekindled Light, I toured the historic district of Pensacola, Florida. One of the houses I visited was the 1871 home built by Clara Barkley Dorr. Mrs. Dorr was a wealthy widow with four surviving children of five when she moved into the home in 1872. The well-built, two-story home boasted stylish décor of the Victorian period.

One of the more interesting artifacts I saw was the collection of hair art displayed in shadow boxes in the foyer. This art was designed by Mrs. Dorr composed of hair from her children, both living and dead, and maybe also from her deceased husband.

Creepy as that seems to me, hair art was common during the Victorian age. Even though the practice had been around for hundreds of years, the Victorians were responsible for turning this form of mourning into an art form.

A hair wreath such as shown above could be made from a single person’s head or like a family tree, could be made from a combination of several family members’ hair. A wreath with an open-end at the top symbolized the deceased’s ascent to heaven.

Hair could also be fashioned into flowers and leaves by twisting and sewing it around wire forms, or into three-dimensional sculptures that were covered by glass domes and placed on parlor tables.

In addition to wreaths, hair jewelry was popular. Bracelets, rings, brooches, watch fobs and buttons were also fashioned from hair as a way to carry a part of your loved one with you.

Godey’s Lady’s Book offered patterns and instructions for shaping and creating hair wreaths. Instructions for detailed works were also available in the 1867 book, Instructor in the Art of Hair Work. In the early 1900’s, even the Sears and Roebuck Catalog sold hair jewelry.

Have you ever heard of or seen hair art? What do think about it? How would you like to get some hair art for Christmas?

Stay tuned for the release of Rekindled Light, which has a character who practices hair art.

Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of my latest release, Great Lakes Lighthouse Brides Romance collection!

Historical fiction flavored with suspense and romance

Multi-published author Marilyn Turk calls herself a “literary archaeologist,” because she loves to discover stories hidden in history. Her World War II novel, The Gilded Curse, won a Silver Scroll award. When readers asked what happened to the characters after the book, Marilyn wrote the sequel, Shadowed by a Spy. Her four-book Coastal Lights Legacy series—Rebel Light, Revealing Light, Redeeming Light, and Rekindled Light—feature Florida lighthouse settings. In addition, Marilyn’s novella, The Wrong Survivor, is in the Great Lakes Lighthouse Brides collection. Marilyn has also written a book of devotions called Lighthouse Devotions. Marilyn also writes for the Daily Guideposts Devotions book.

Fishscale art and Hair

Cara Grandle here.

When it comes to historical fiction, most of the heroines are cameoed doing some sort of domestic fine art. Depending on the time period and the level of income, the crafts they did changed.

How often have you read about a lady in a drawing room doing needlepoint, watercolor or playing the piano forte? Or if your favorite book is set on the frontier, the lady of the house would’ve been candle-making, darning a sock, or making soap.

These sorts of hobbies and crafts are traditional and normal, but have you ever heard of a heroine sitting around doing fishscale art?

Here is what it looks like:

The ladies or their servants harvested the scales off of certain kinds of fish, cleaned them, dried them and sometimes dyed them, before they poke two fine holes at the base of the scale and then added it to their stitch work.

And now we have the original sequin.

And how about this? Have you seen samples of hair art in Museums or in old photos?

Women would gather the hair that they naturally shed or brushed out and they would twirl it around the tip of their index finger and place it in this little jar to be used as thread for a craft called hair art.

They would give their work to their friends and family as engagements, weddings, births, or bereavements gifts as keepsakes for any kind of special occasion.

Both hobbies should get the “Most Impressive” award for upcycling.

The one heart-warming detail about hair art, for me, is I can remember my Great Grandmother’s habit of twirling a loose hair or thread around her finger in just such a way, and now I know why.

As much as I find these two crafts interesting, I equally find them a little eeeewww! I wonder if the fishscale art smelled and I can’t help think about the hair as dead cells.

I’m assuming this is my bizarre reaction, but I figured I’d ask. What do you think of these handcrafts? Would you want fishscale on the hem of your dress or on the side of your purse? And how about hair art? Would you hang one proudly on your wall?

CaraGrandle is a Historical Romance Novelist who prefers to write about the early settlers of the Pacific Northwest. She is represented by the Steve Laube Agency. Cara leads the author4TheAuthor writers group on Facebook, home to 190 writers. Together they're pressing back on busy and making a space for their dreams. Cara hosts a Writers Encouragement show weekly on Periscope. The show is on Tuesday mornings at 9:00am PST. Cara's Periscope show includes live, interactive author-interviews with leading Christian fiction novelists, editors, publicist and agents under the handle @CaraGrandle.

Cara is currently out on submission. Follower her journey on her Facebook author page.