Featured One more share for the day (Honestly this creeps me out)

I have a "framed" piece that was in a box of my parent's things.....I posted the pic some time ago....not positive which side of the family it belongs to....badly needs re-framing, but I think it's lovely! I think of the time and effort involved in making that............

 

I think it's a very nice piece and am in the same camp as those who've already said they don't find creepy at all.

One small point on the spelling controversy. My mother's name was Frances with an e, but when she moved south, most locals spelled her name with an "i" because that's the way they were used to spelling it. Since Kasper is in Texas, it doesn't surprise me that this spelling was used.

 

My female relatives from the early 20th century used the hair from the hair receivers for plumping up buns. There were also hair art items that were romantic mementoes - you'd have a pin or something made from the hair of a loved one that was living. At least according to my mother

 

I have my grandmother's monogramed "French Ivory" vanity set, complete with hair receiver. I think it was probably an 18th birthday present, since the monogram is her maiden name. That would have been 1919. She was still using it in the 50's.

 

Death was very personal - people more often died in their homes, not a hospital - wakes and funerals were carried out in the home, too.

People were also much influenced by Queen Victoria's intense mourning over the death of Prince Albert in 1861 - she mandated that only black jewelry could be worn in court until 1880...

There was a great culture of mourning and longing expressed in clothes, jewelry, literature, photography and art... Whether it was carried out before or after, a piece like this makes me appreciate a kind of reflection we seem to have lost.

 

Very interesting discussion, everybody.

I think traditional Mexican culture has remained more "attached" or "at ease" with death. Dia de los Muertos is a good example of that.

 

Isn't that hair apparent?

 

So strange, the reactions hair causes in some people, once worked for a man who threw away his hair brushes rather than clean out the hair (he was a jerk, so I'd clean mine out just to watch him shudder), and have, for decades, had people touch my hair without asking, as if they couldn't resist...

When my hair finally came in as a baby, since we were a thousand miles away, my Mom sent a lock to her mother, and when my grandmother died at 97, Mom gave me a little celluloid box, inside, a slip of paper with my name, folded around that same little thread-wrapped lock. She wasn't much of a saver, and we weren't close, but that touched my heart and now I keep it, along with my Mom's braid, cut off in her teens, when she started working and wanted to look more adult, and a lock from the mane of the equine love of my life, heartbreakingly sold when I was 21, and also a lock of fur from the canine love of my life, who was fiercely devoted to me, and even a recent bit of my hair, after having over eight inches trimmed off, struck by the thought that any later cuts would probably be primarily white. There is an odd comfort in knowing that my grandmother loved me enough to keep that lock, and in having an ephemeral piece of Jean before she became Mom, and those tangible bits of Eagle and Bru bring back clear memories of years of caring for, and loving those special boys who gave back that love tenfold.

So I guess, really, that I must fall into that creepy category too...

~Cheryl

 

Oh how sweet all that.

 

That's beautiful, Cheryl. Everything you said... is beautiful.

 

Nope , still find it creepy . But yall made some very lovely points , and I confess to seeing it all a little differently now .

 

Not creepy to me.
The 1st time I found one of Puss-Cat's whiskers on the floor.....I brought it over to where he was sleeping ...and tickled his little black nose with it ...until he woke up . Then I roughed him up ....half asleep....telling him that that'll teach him , for trying to wake me up by dragging his tail across my face.

After that I kept any whiskers I ever found & still have over 30, most in the 3 to 4 inch range . That cat had great whiskers......I loved him...& his whiskers, and any time i found one ..I use'd it to initiate play time......whether he was asleep or not !!

 

Article on hair-work: http://www.victoriangothic.org/the-lost-art-of-sentimental-hairwork/

Leila's Hair Museum: http://www.leilashairmuseum.net

~Cheryl

 

I save a lot of my bird's feathers, give 'em to crafters and friends or kids...
I have a personal collection spanning his 30 years.

I once collected enough cat-whiskers (various cats) to make a "scene" on black velvet... gave it to an auntie.

I have a baby tooth from my favorite mutt, now long gone.

And I have locks of hair from a number of relatives, living and dead.

I draw a lot of comfort from all of these things. More than I had realized. Until now. I keep these things in my jewelry box.

Wow... this turned out to be a really thought-provoking thread, didn't it?

 

Komokwa - years ago, started saving cat whiskers for an artist I'd known since childhood, but ended up keeping them, still adding to the old glass cigar tube, (lots of long-gone feline loves have contributed)...

Whiskers can be seen in some her sculptures here: http://www.endangeredarts.com/index.php?/category/117

~Cheryl

 

That's EXACTLY what I mean.

~

 

Okay - confused at making a little old lady into a vampire... Just implying creepiness?

~Cheryl

 

Not really, just trying to maintain a feeling of creepiness. She did look a bit intimidating and I enhanced that (very amateurishly) to show my lack of artistic abilities and current boredom still confined to the house.

 

Okay I have also kept hair from my dog, horse, and feathers from my parrot and of course I have a snippet of my daughters hair. It is not the keeping of the loved ones hair that creeps me out because I get that it is out of love.

I don't know how to explain this but it's the way the hair is all twisted up. All the tiny and intricate twist forming a bouquet of flowers out of hair it is just too much for my head. It makes me shudder. Hair isn't suppose to do that. LOL!

 

Hehe, can't help the way you feel - have a friend who collects dolls and my skin crawls everytime I step Into the 'nursery', hundreds of unblinking stares...

~Cheryl