Hairwork Flower

This weekend I went to a workshop for learning how to do hairwork. The workshop was led by Sandra Klowak. She taught us how to do the kind of hairwork that is used to make decorative pieces, like wreaths (not the kinds that were used for jewelry, which involve different techniques). It was super cool. You create guimpes of hair and wire that you then shape into flowers. The hair we used was synthetic.

I think mine turned out pretty good for a first try!


The hair makes little loops that are formed over a rod and are secured by the wire. I'm considering trying something like this but with cord for making trims.


It's tricky to get the ends to look nice. You can see at the back of my flower that lots of the hair ends are sticking out in tufts. I made 5 small guimpes and then twisted the wires together to make the flower.


It was a really neat learning experience. It's such an unusual skill and so very Victorian.