Cross pollination

cross-pol·li·na·tion (krôspl-nshn, krs-)n.1. The transfer of pollen from an anther of the flower of one plant to a stigma of the flower of another plant.
2. Influence or inspiration between or among diverse elements:

There are many different threads here on the blog about the new year, and we are all addressing it in our unique ways: Jen's musings on goals, direction, journals; Sue's new experimentations in polymer; Linda pondering the freedom to play...  I spend a good bit of quality time in January with coffee and my sketchbook. And of late - my iPad. Its the quietest month for me as to teaching and shows; I like to pull inward and hibernate a bit. This also provides me with a time to refuel, research, and be inspired. 

Today was all about cross pollination. I may not have had my hands on many projects/materials/tools but I had my brain in overdrive. ideas crossing over from one medium to the next, making connections, inspiring new collaborations... so you see cross pollination at its finest. 

While I have you thinking of bees, while ideas are buzzing...  I have some mixed media pieces, just finished that were inspired by a novel, and a crazy Victorian obsession. 

I knew of the  Victorian "Language of Flowers" - also called floriography, is a means of coded communication through the use or arrangement of flowers. Flowers have been ascribed meanings in cultures across the globe for centuries. You will find it in work by Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters...  The Victorian era was rather straight laced ( literally and figuratively) so flirting and illicit rendezvous were hard to accomplish. Enter flowers. A red rose - love. A white rose - innocent love.  A yellow rose - jealousy. But dill - lust? and purple columbine - 'resolved to win'? Wow. there was a bit of drama in the florists trade! Who needs reality tv? 

Over the holidays I read "The Language of Flowers" by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. I loved the book, it was heartbreaking and wonderful, with surprises and fantastic characters. The Language of flowers is the thread woven through that motivates, unites, and redeems the people, and in many ways it heals what is broken. 

Flowers were on my mind after finishing the book, and I was making the polymer parts for the January Component of the Month. I was playing around with a few shapes I intended to paint, gild, and stain then use as bezels. There was a set of 9 that didn't make the cut for CoM...  <light bulb moment> 

Vintage images meets antique book text in these Victorian inspired floral vocals. ( polymer, paint, paper, resin...)

Its all because of this stack of vintage (Geez - they were from my childhood and they are just approaching vintage... harumph) illustrated children's encyclopedias. They have the best illustrations, in limited colors, and so small... Some were mine, others have been given to me by friends who saw their potential. I may never finish mining these for fantastic little images. And I AM cutting the books up directly, no scans, no color copies. These are truly one-of-a-kind!

Flamingo, anyone?

So in the language of flowers - to you readers - I would make up a posie of Canterbury bells ( gratitude), Chrysanthemum ( abundance & health), Ivy ( friendship), Geranium ( true friendship). 

Have a great New Year! 
And may your creative ideas buzz about like bees to a flower! 

Jenny
www.jdaviesreazor.com

Resources: 

Language of Flowers Wiki

A great alphabetical list 

Victorian Floriography

Freeform Friday - Victorian hair jewelry

Happy Halloween. Happy All Soul's Day & All Saint's Day...
It the time of year when "the veil is thin" and the deceased are brought to mind. With festivals and remembrances, with pictures and mementos... and with hair? 

Last week I shared with you the variety of Victorian mourning jewelry, designed and worn to commemorate and immortalize the lost loved one. But the tradition of hairwork encompassed more than mourning the dead. Hair was used as a token of remembrance among the living as well. 

The small town of Vamhus Sweden had a reputation for their hair plaiting cottage industry. As a town only needs so many hair weavers... they spread out over Europe in the early 1800's and the traditions took hold. ( I couldn't make this up). In the 1850's Queen Victoria gave Empress Eugenie a bracelet plaited of her own hair. And as we know from the rise in popularity of Whitby jet from last week - once Queen Victoria endorsed a product, it became all the rage. 

 Godey's ladies magazine - the Vogue of the 1800's says this: 

"Hair is at once the most delicate and last of our materials and survives us like

love. It is so light, so gentle, so escaping from the idea of death, that, with a

lock of hair belonging to a child or friend we may almost look up to heaven 

and compare notes with angelic nature, may almost say, I have a piece of thee 

here, not unworthy of thy being now."

Mourning Brooch
USA c. 1848 Gold, enamel, hair, glass
Inscription:
Brooch: “H. G. Otis, / Died Octr. 28th 1848 / G. H. Otis, Died Octr. 24th 1848.”
Locket: “George H. Otis Died 1848”

Brooch
USA, 1864. Hair, gold
H. 2, W. 2 11/16, D. 3/8 in.
Inscription: Front: “Julia” Back: “Died Apl 22. 1864”

 Intricate three dimensional pieces crafted from the hair of an entire family - framed in a shadow box.
Hair worked on a table with bobbins, as classic lace makers and tatters would do...  and a drawing room social activity? Fix a pot of tea, or a glass of sherry... we are working on hair tonight after dinner. Wow.

"Beginning in the 1850's through the 1900's, hairwork became a drawing room 

pastime. Godey's Lady's Book and Peterson's Magazine gave instructions and 

patterns for making brooches, cuff links, and bracelets at home. 

The work was done on a round table. Depending on the height of the table, it 

could be done sitting or standing... The hair must be boiled in soda water for 15 minutes. It was then sorted into lengths and divided into strands of 20-30 hairs. Most pieces of jewelry required long 

hair. For example, a full size bracelet called for hair 20 to 24" long...

Almost all hairwork was made around a mold or firm material. Snake bracelets 

and brooches, spiral earrings and other fancy hair forms required special 

molds which were made by local wood turners. The mold was attached to the 

center hole in the work table. The hair was wound on a series of bobbins, and 

weights were attached to the braid work to maintain the correct level and to 

keep the hair straight. When the work was finished and while still around the 

mold, it was taken off, boiled for 15 minutes, dried and removed from the 

mold. It was then ready to go to a jewelers for mounting. (hairwork.com)"

Photo credits Morning Glory jewelry

Photo credits Morning Glory jewelry

I find it a little bit creepy, and quite a bit fascinating. Not uncommon to this day to save a lock of a baby's hair. And I am reminded of the O. Henry story "The Gift of the Magi" where the newlywed wife sells her hair to but her husband a watch fob. ( He of course has pawned the watch to buy her gold hair combs...) 

I hope this was interesting to you! I found it more and more interesting in a quirky way the more I read... Have a hair raising weekend! 

Jenny

www.jdaviesreazor.com

Resources - 

Morning Glory jewelry

Hairwork.com

Freeform Friday - Victorian mourning jewelry

I love Halloween. I love the dark and mysterious, cauldrons, witches, the wheel of the year turning to winter. We have discussed the Day if the Dead here recently and I decided to take topics a wee bit darker for the next two weeks - leading up to Halloween and All Soul's Day/All Saint's Day. 

The topic was inspired by a conversation I was having over at Art-Share.org, a podcast of which I am part. We were embracing the dark, maybe morbid topics for the month of October - things like momento mori, and ... hair jewelry. So I was inspired to research both Victorian hair jewelry and mourning jewelry styles. 

Mourning jewelry

Mourning jewelry provides the wearer with a physical object by which to memorialize a lost loved one; providing comfort and acting as a momento mori.  Some of the earliest examples date back to the 15th/16th century. Items found in Europe from this era include black and white enamel pieces, often skulls, set into rings and brooches. 

In the 17th and 18th centuries it became a mark of status to wear mourning jewelry for deceased loved ones. The height of the style came in the Victorian era. Queen Victoria's consort Prince Albert died in 1861; she dressed in black for the remainder of her days. In the US at this time, the Civil War helped increase the popularity of mourning jewelry - as to be expected...

The five daughters of Prince Albert wore black dresses and posed for a portrait with his statue following his death in 1861.

Victorian mourning attire was strictly regimented: 

• "Full mourning"  - 1 year long. Full black, weeping veil. No adornment. 
• The transitional period allowed for minor adornment including mourning jewelry. This transitional stage was 9 months. 
• "Half mourning" - 3-6 months. Any jewelry allow. Colors could include grey, violet, mauve, deep reds... 

Types of mourning jewelry

coffin ring from 1715  - crystal coffin shape over skull and hair work. 

Rings and brooches were the most common forms of mourning jewelry, usually inscribed with the name, date of death and age of the deceased. Popular motifs included funeral urns and weeping women in a Neo-Classical style. Hair was often used, under glass, intricately woven... ( More on that next week)

Images from HistoricNewEngland.org

Brooches: 

Enamel brooch, jet and hair brooch, carved jet brooch. 

Jet

Jet is a mineraloid, derived from fossilized wood. It is ultra black, smooth and lightweight.  It has been used since Ancient Greece circa 200 BCE. The Venerable Bede says this about British jet: "Britain has much excellent jet... black and sparkling, glittering at the fire, and when hearted drives serpents away..." Superstition had it that jet was shiny enough to avert the evil eye.

The town of Whitby is known for its jet, although jet occurs in other regions. Whitby jet is from the Jurassic era - app. 182 million years old. Whitby was a popular Victorian seaside destination, and the Whitby jet trade started as a souvenir industry. After Prince Albert's death, Queen Victoria's mourning regimen helped to increase jet's popularity. The rise of jet's popularity saw shops carving and selling jet jewelry in town go from 50 workshops in 1850 - to 200 shops in 1873! It is currently illegal to mine jet in Whitby, as it has been over mined and the shale based cliffs are rather unstable. Contemporary jet carvers are working with pieces washed up on shore that have naturally sloughed off the jet lines in the cliffs.

Stay tuned next week for more of the morbidly fascinating, the dark Gothic, the hair jewelry... 

Jenny

www.jdaviesreazor.com

References: 

Morbid Outlook

Whitby Jet

Art of Mourning 

Historic New England