Hair Jewellery - Then and Now

With her delicate ornamental necklaces young british design talent Kerry Howley got a lot of attention recently. What appears as lace or some kind of fluffy fabric or yarn at the first glance turns into interwoven human hair at a closer look.

A different approach takes Melanie Bilenker. She uses the hair to craft line drawings in order to recreate snapshots out of her daily life. The hair is embedded in resin and combined with gold and ebony.

Even though those pieces are beautiful, well crafted and combined with precious materials the hair creates kind of a gross feeling. Most people are disgusted by hair as soon as it is no longer attached to the scalp.

Brooch, England, around 1830

This gross feeling wasn't always linked to jewellery made of human hair. Both artists were inspired by victorian hair jewellery. Those pieces were created with hair of deceased loved ones like the mourning jewellery of Queen Victoria made with her dead husband's hair.

Ring, Austria, around 1850

But not only in the victorian times hair jewellery was made. From 1600 to the 1920'ies it was very common to use hair as a material for Jewellery. There were bracelets, rings and brooches mainly made out of the hair of young girls to create gift parcels.

Watch chain, Austria, around 1900

Very common and most numerous preserved were watch chains for men made out of the hair of their wifes.
For those who are interested to take a look at those pieces: There is an exhibition going on in Stadtmuseum Dornbirn called Haarscharf open til the end of September.



via
Fashionista - Interview with Kerry Howley 
Art Jewelry Forum
Cool Outfit - Schmuck aus menschlichem Haar
Haarschmucksammlung