Victorian Palette-Worked Hair Flower Bouquet Necklace

Contrary to popular belief, hair jewelry was not always mourning jewelry. Sometimes these intricately woven pieces were created as love tokens from sweethearts, family members and cherished friends as a way to feel closer to the other. Gaining in popularity during the Civil War, hair work was an affordable and common at-home drawing room past time, much like knitting. Patterns and templates were widely available in newspapers, fashion magazines and periodicals. Many young women earned a living making hair jewelry at home. For those less skilled or crafty, ready-to-wear hair work jewelry could be purchased through catalogs or from jewelry stores, or you could send hair off to a professional weaver to have a custom piece created. Traditionally, there were two different types of hairwork techniques: table-worked hair and palette-worked hair. Table-worked hair involved the use of a small, flat braiding table (a top hat or bandbox would suffice in a pinch) with a small finger-sized hole cut