An Interview with Karen Keenan
If the history and sentimental importance of this generationally transferred art form is unknown, human hair jewelry may seem quite odd. In fact, jewelry made with human hair was once popular across Europe and the United States. Today, thanks to the support of the American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellowship, Karen Keenan is helping to revive this almost forgotten art form in the Midwest and beyond. This brief article will introduce the reader to this unique folk art form.
What is hairwork jewelry?
While it may seem strange, using human hair to make jewelry was once as widely practiced as embroidery, knitting or crocheting is today. In fact, the contemporary practice of keeping hair from a child’s first haircut may be an example of hairwork’s 19th century residual effect. Hairwork jewelry is made using human hair to create meaningful adornments for the body such as bracelets, brooches, necklaces, earrings, crowns, watch fobs and chains.
Hairwork crown made by Karen Keenan for an exhibit at the Nordic Center in Duluth, Minnesota, 2021
How is hairwork jewelry made?
The first step may be obvious; it’s obtaining the hair. The hair artisan (or hair worker) could be given hair by someone who commissions the work. It could also be supplied from the artist’s own hair or purchased from a commercial supplier. A supply of hair at least 12 inches long is needed to make braids on a hair table. Bobbins and counterweights hold the hair on the table while the artist forms the braids of a chosen pattern.
Hairwork table. Photo: Karen Keenan
Generally, hairworkers use human hair to make three types of braids for jewelry construction. One is cord-like, a solid braid. Another is hollow as it is constructed over a knitting needle mold. The third braid is flat. All braids vary in texture and width, depending on the amount of hair used and the braiding pattern. The braids are joined within either hair-covered wood beads or metal findings [parts used to join jewelery components together] to make the desired jewelry item. Sewing skills, patience, concentration and steady hands help to create uniform, strong and attractive jewelry.
There are many hairwork braid patterns. Most have been captured in an 1800s book available via Project Gutenberg, Self-Instructor in the Art of Hair Work, by Mark Campbell.
What is the history of hairwork jewelry?
Traditional Swedish hair jewelry was most likely informed by other 1700s fine processes such as weaving, needlework, wig making, and bobbin lacemaking. When two of these skills, wig and lace making, were not as popular during the latter part of the 18th century due to cultural and fashion trend changes, cottage industry traveling artisans from Våmhus, Sweden, became motivated to transition known skills into new forms. The result was a new trend: hairwork. During a time of cultural sentimentality, this new adornment art resonated across multiple continents.
In the 1800s it was common for many Våmhus women and apprentices to leave their village for months, if not years, to work in major European cities to make commissioned hair jewelry. The good income made through their efforts contributed significantly to farm and community development back in their home village.
Two hair workers from Våmhus photographed in Scotland around 1880: Karen Keenan’s great-grandmother Martis Karin Olsdotter (left) and her cousin Mårten Anna Olsdotter.
Knowledge about Våmhus hairworkers has been recorded over time, first in the form of hair pattern tutorials and then through the efforts of folklorist researchers. Articles continue to be written by authors from Sweden and other places. During the mid-1900s Swedish author Edith Unnerstad wrote two books for youth about the hairworkers of the 1800s: A Journey to England (1961) and Grandmother’s Journey (1960). Much can be learned about the period in which hair jewelry was fashionable from reading these two books.
What is the cultural significance of hairwork jewelry in Våmhus, Sweden?
Hair jewelry was very popular throughout Europe and the U.S. before and during the 1800s and into the early 1900s up to WWII. As folk art and artistic trends do, this form of material application faded over time. However, one village in Sweden—Våmhus—to this day has consistently kept hairwork alive as a village identity. The distinguishing characteristic of table-made hairwork jewelry made by Våmhus artisans are items made with hair covered wooden bead findings.
Thanks to the dedication of the Hairwork Society, today’s visitors to Våmhus in the summertime can observe multi-generational villagers demonstrate the hairwork process at Våmhus Gammelgård. The practice is kept vibrant by training school children how to make traditional hair jewelry during the school year.
How did you learn about hairwork jewelry?
My mother’s father, Carl A. A. Heed, was born and raised in Våmhus. In 1904, he immigrated to the United States, settling ultimately in Northern Minnesota. As a teenager, my mother, Carol Mae Heed Sather, and her three sisters were gifted with Våmhus folk dråkts [folk costumes], which included a hairwork brooch. This Swedish artifact was of particular interest to me as a child. I was drawn to making things by hand, and was encouraged to learn hairwork by Våmhus relatives and villagers. In 2018, I was awarded a folk art fellowship through the American Scandinavian Foundation. I was honored and grateful for the chance to learn the hairwork craft and carry on my family’s tradition of making hair jewelry and revive this almost forgotten art form in the Midwest. I learned from Master Hairworker Joanna Svensson in Våmhus over a two-week period in November 2018.
A contemporary take on a traditional craft by Karen Keenan, a stone pendant with Swedish hairwork
Since my training period in Sweden, I have been practicing, researching and exploring the expressive possibilities of hair work. In October, 2019, I curated an exhibition of hair jewelry called Woven: Traditional Swedish Hair Jewelry at the Nordic Center in Duluth, Minnesota.
I also share my research through teaching. The first class was at The Nordic Center in 2019. Following this, I began teaching at North House Folk School. In November 2022 I presented a talk and a gimping workshop at the Museum of International Folk Art, in conjunction with an exhibit titled Dressing With Purpose: Belonging and Resistance in Scandinavia. In November 2023 I will teach a bracelet course at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Bracelets made by students at North House Folk School
Karen Keenan, October 2023
www.hemslojdstudios.com
Instagram: @hemslojdstudios
Bio: Karen Keenan, Ed.D. is a retired music teacher, staff developer, and consultant. She currently works in two process-oriented disciplines. One is: assisting individuals, groups and organizations through planned change as an organization learning and development consultant. She is also an artisan and founder of Hemslōjd Studios. Through the studio Karen creates, teaches, and coaches, with a focus on ceramics and Swedish traditional hair jewelry, a folk art she is helping to revive.
Outside the studio, Karen enjoys working with her husband, who makes and sells wood hair tables and weighted bobbins inspired by traditional Swedish designs, for the growing number of hairworkers. Karen also is a musician. She enjoys playing the contemporary flute and early music recorders. She rehearses weekly with a recorder quartet called “Four Friday Fipple Flute Friends.” Otherwise, you can find her on local hiking trails with friends and family.
If you would like to learn more about Swedish hair work, Karen suggests these sources:
Master Hairworker Joanna Svensson’s website
http://www.myranshemslojd.se/sv/Myrans_Hemslöjd.html
Collector’s Encyclopedia of Hairwork Jewelry: Identification & Values (1998)
by C. Jeanenne Bell is an excellent resource for hair jewelry.
https://www.amazon.com/Collectors-Encyclopedia-Hairwork-Jewelry-Identification/dp/1574320491
Editor’s note: Karen’s class at the American Swedish Institute, Table-Made Hair Jewelry Bracelet, https://asimn.org/event/table-made-hair-jewelry-bracelet/, will be held on Nov. 9-12, 2023. A portion of Karen’s article was also submitted to the ASI Blog in December, 2022.