On the framing of hair

Framar

WOW Framer
Joined
Jul 24, 2001
Posts
26,420
Loc
Buffalo, New York, USA/Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada
A customer who thinks I am a genius brought in a really terrific project and said the fatal words, "Take your time." So for about three weeks now I have been sitting on this wonderful painting done by her young grandson and a baggie full of his hair clippings that he scooped up off of the floor and gave to his Grandma saying, "Here, take this home with you and you will always have a piece of me."

Ain't that cute?

Anyhow, I have a blue frame to match the paint color, a cream mat and a bright red inner mat, to match another color in the painting as well as the faded kindergarten paper - I plan on a two opening double mat - one opening for the painting and one for the hair.

With me so far? If this were little girl's hair I would simply tie it in a nice ribbon. What on earth am I gonna do with this little boy's hair? It is in chunks about 2-3" long, slightly curly. What can I tie it with?

I keep thinking of "snips and snails and puppy dog tails" - I HAVE the SNIPS, maybe I could draw, print or somehow create some snails?

Arrrggghhh! My customer is expecting a masterpiece.

Any ideas?

H E L P !!!!!
 
Could you tie it with some of the hair? Maybe the tails. lol. At least you won't have to worry about the stray hair.
 
I had a similar project ... clipppings of fur from a much beloved, and now deceased, cat together with a series of photographs.

I sandwiched the fur between a bottom mat and a piece of museum glass, which was then placed under an opening in the top mat. The result was much better than I would have imagined.

You could do the same thing and therefore avoid having to tie the hair.

I chose Museum rather than Mylar to avoid the glare, but equally you could encapsulate the hair in mylar.

Hope this helps!
 
Oh, you have given me an idea - jump started my brain, as usual!

I just printed up a small sheet of the lines, "Snips and snails and puppy dog's tails, that's what little boys are made of" with various fonts and the colors of the artwork. This I will mount under the encapsulated hair in the second opening!

I will post a pic when it is finished!
 
Possibly get some cotton linters and make a paper with the hair as inclusions in the paper. Then take the hand made paper and mount it to a mat board and cut a mat...or, if you don't have enough hair to do that, make the paper somewhat small and put it in a second opening in the mat.

Just a thought. Making paper is fun and easy.

Dave Makielski
 
Oh Dave - what a grand idea! Maybe not for this project but surely for another. For a while there I was a paper-makin' fool - nothing was safe for inclusions! I am still saving up leaf flakes from leafing operations.
 
Mar, thank goodness for the inventiveness of Grumblers. I was going to suggest attaching the hair with a wad of chewing gum. Luckily, you've gotten much better answers than that.

Kit
 
Get a picture of an old barber shop, or the Rockwell print of the little boy getting his hair cut, and spray the hair clippings to "the floor"!


I had a thought of the boy in question, his side profile in the old fashion shadow method, replete with baseball cap (made out of mat board) and the hair coming out from under the cap!
 
How 'bout a clear "box" made of mylar and let the hair "free float" inside this box... I could have a color mat behind it - use foamcore to space and have mylar - ooo, this is hard to 'xplain - but I have it in my mind - have you seen the dimensional cards that have sand/shells between two layers with some depth and you can shake it up, down, sideways and the sand moves... that kinda thing!!
 
Here is what I did. I encapsulated a few little wisps of the hair (I had a big glob to work with) and placed it over a backdrop of the snips and snails sentence - all done in different fonts and colors. Then I made a 1/4" border around the upper mat opening with the same sentences marching around.

Grandma was SO THRILLED she went home and came back with a painting done by this kid's brother! Now I have to come up with something equally impressive for HIM!

03_35_30_snipsandsnails.jpg


03_35_54_ASnipsandsnailscloseup.jpg


Y'all are coming up with some really great ideas! Thanks!
 
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