Monthly Archives: March 2011

Longlocks Hair Sticks: My Favorites

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My friend Susan makes couture hair jewelry with inimitable style. She has shown me other hair stick makers, whom she likes. Those sticks were made by a wood turner and were beautiful, but they were for a different woman. Those of us who could not live without Susan’s art have colored flowers inside our souls. I just wanted to feature some of my favorite Longlocks Hair Sticks, and take comfort in the fact that there are modern jewelry artists who live up to the standards of craftsmanship antique collectors treasure.

Kanzashi as Deadly Weapons

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Brass- or gold-plated metal kanzashi began to be made in the latter part of the Edo era, when hair styles became more complicated. Hair ornaments revealed a woman’s class, marital status, age, and if she had any children.

A woman could also use her kanzashi as a deadly weapon. Female ninja, or kunoichi, practiced ninjutsu, the martial art of guerrilla warfare. They used their kanzashi to rake the eyes of their victims while escaping. Or, they dipped them in poison to assassinate people. Fending off male attackers was another convenient function.

This gold-plated skull kanzashi subtly illustrates beauty’s deadly side. It currently resides in the Daruma Museum

Creative Museum: Ivory Comb from Dieppe, France

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by the Creative Museum:

From the Fourteenth Century, Dieppe sailors docked their boats on the coast of Guinea to collect ivory. Instead of selling their precious raw material to Paris workshops, they learned to carve great works of art themselves and kept the profit.

The bindweed flowers carved onto this ivory diadem are hinged to a tortoiseshell comb. It was probably made in Dieppe, France, c. 1850 – 1870.

Sterling Silver Ashanti Comb

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A friend pointed this out to me from E-Bay France. It is a masterpiece, and the way-too-expensive 850-euro price tag reflects it. There were only three copies made in the Nefertiti Gallery, located in the Dakar Region of Senegal. One is owned by the President; the second was offered to the wife of a European head of state; and the third, which is for sale, belongs to the gallery owner. Each comb was hand made by the Nefertiti Gallery’s jewelers.