On Mar 4, 2005, at 4:32, Jane Partridge wrote:
Some years ago, I think it was in 1998 when Tamara was in the UK - a group of us met up in Manchester and went to the ?Science Museum. In a textile exhibition there, there was a large hanging made totally from hair - woven I think. Quite impressive, wonder if its maker was one of the 17? Steph, Tamara, do either of you remember this piece?
No, I don't. What I remember the best is the hall where we observed the process of transforming various grades of cotton (from different sources) into thread and then into jacquard weavings. And the "weaving" in the entry hall which was - I think - made of thistledown?
Re hair weaving: There was an excellent article ("The history and work of a Harkulla family" - "harkulla" meaning: "woman from the county of Darlecarlia, using hair to make jewelry and pictures as well as clothing") in OIDFA bulletin #2/1999 (preceding the Congress in Lund, when Swedish laces were being featured). Among other things, it gives a drawing and a description of the hair-weaving "stool" and its lead weights. Which are somewhat similiar in shape to Swedish lace bobbins, though I assume they're smaller.
As for sightings of examples... V&A has quite a collection of them. I don't know if they're always on display, but I remember seeing two biggish vitrines of the VIctorian ones (and, as the pieces were usually fairly small - I think the bigest was maybe 3"x2" - that meant quite a lot of pieces <g>), when I was there in '88.
Like Clay, I felt a touch uncomfortable with the *idea*, but couldn't help admiring them; some were whole pictures - in different colours of hair - and really fascinating. Of course, that was still before I learnt lacemaking (and I never discovered their lace room, either <g>), so I had no clue as to how they might have ben made...
-- Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/ Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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