Time: 11 am EST
FREE with registration HERE

Join Karen Bachmann for a visual presentation and demonstration of traditional Victorian mourning Hairwork techniques.

The 19th century of the Victorian Era was a time rife with sentimental culture. Death rates were high due to numerous factors including disease, war, and high childhood mortality. Queen Victoria was an unlikely fashion icon and submerged herself in mourning after the deaths of both her husband, Prince Albert, and her mother in 1861. Aside from her mostly black wardrobe, she was widely known for her love of mourning jewelry, which very contained hair of a loved one inside.

Victorian hairwork became very popular in both jewelry and shadowbox form during the 19th century and into the beginning of the 20th century. It transcended the concept of a wearable human relic into a fashion statement during this time period. In today’s lecture and demonstration, participants will learn about wire-work items that would be used in shadowbox creation. We will be demonstrating working with copper wire and horsehair to form intricate twists and braiding that can be manipulated in various ways to form flowers, leaves, berries, and other shapes.

In this 1 hour demo you will experience a visual presentation and demonstration highlighting some of the main techniques in creating traditional Victorian hairwork with wire that was so predominant in the 18th and 19th centuries.