Who was the artist of the hair art?
Rarely does the name of the artist survive. It’s believed that most works of hair art were made by women; books on ladies’ “fancywork” provided instructions alongside other Victorian parlor crafts like needlework or wax flowers.
Is there a museum made out of hair?
There’s a hair museum, containing 159 wreaths and 2,000 pieces of jewelry made of hair. You can even take a class on hair jewelry at the Morbid Anatomy Museum.
What did people use to make jewelry out of hair?
“People would use pulverized hair as a kind of a pigment and paint a mourning scene, and then on the flip side of the jewelry would be a lock of the person’s hair, worn close to the person’s heart,” said Emily Snedden Yates, special projects manager at the Mütter and co-curator of the exhibition.
What did people make out of human hair?
People made wreaths, rings, necklaces and all sorts of pieces out of human hair. One of the most famous guides to doing hair work was published in 1867, called Self-Instructor and the Art of Hair Work. The author writes:
Rarely does the name of the artist survive. It’s believed that most works of hair art were made by women; books on ladies’ “fancywork” provided instructions alongside other Victorian parlor crafts like needlework or wax flowers.
There’s a hair museum, containing 159 wreaths and 2,000 pieces of jewelry made of hair. You can even take a class on hair jewelry at the Morbid Anatomy Museum.
“People would use pulverized hair as a kind of a pigment and paint a mourning scene, and then on the flip side of the jewelry would be a lock of the person’s hair, worn close to the person’s heart,” said Emily Snedden Yates, special projects manager at the Mütter and co-curator of the exhibition.
Where did the tradition of making hair art come from?
Hair art has its roots in the 17th and 18th century, when high infant mortality rates meant that “death was everywhere,” writes Karen Bachmann in an essay for the recent book Death: A Graveside Companion. “The keeping and saving of hair for future use in jewelry or other commemorative craft (such as wreaths) was common.”
