Donna Lowson Art

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Donna Lowson Art Artist, Practice-Led Researcher & Workshop Facilitator | Hair, Feminist Histories & Material Agency

A little bit of research help, please!I'm preparing for an upcoming consultation with Heritage Crafts about the potentia...
30/09/2026

A little bit of research help, please!

I'm preparing for an upcoming consultation with Heritage Crafts about the potential inclusion of Historical Hair Work in the next Red List of Endangered Crafts.

As part of that, I'm trying to build a clearer picture of who is currently practising Historical Hair Work and where practitioners are based.

If you practise historical hairwork — whether that's tablework, hair embroidery, gimping/wirework, palette work, braiding or another historical technique — I'd really love to hear from you.

If you're happy to, please comment below or message me with:
• Your name
• Country / location
• Which techniques you practise
• Whether you currently teach or mentor
• Any other practitioners you know of

I'm not trying to establish an exact number at this stage. I'm simply trying to understand where the knowledge currently exists and how it is being passed on.

Please feel free to share this with other historical hairworkers who might not see it.

Thank you ❤️

15/08/2026

Material leads the way

This is why I love material-led research.

I started with a short piece of woven hairwork, simply exploring the material and a historical pattern.

And then, through making and handling it, another possibility appeared…

What if it became longer?
What if it was suspended?
What if it moved with the wind?
What if I introduced shells or stones and allowed the materials to make sound?

Suddenly I'm thinking about wind chimes, witches' ladders, intention and manifestation, and even ideas around human and more-than-human agency.

None of these ideas were planned.

They emerged through interaction with the material.

That, for me, is the value of practice-led, material-led research. The material doesn't simply illustrate an idea I've already had.

It opens the door to ideas I hadn't thought of yet.

Now I think I need to make one for outside my studio and see what the wind does with it… 🌿

So I unpicked the 6 braid block braid and reconfigured it to make a hair bracelet big enough for my wrist.What do you t...
14/08/2026

So I unpicked the 6 braid block braid and reconfigured it to make a hair bracelet big enough for my wrist.

What do you think?

With the surplus braids I made this chocker


12/08/2026

Different outcomes, same historical pattern. ✨

Exploring how small changes in the making can produce completely different results.
The top braid is a reconstruction of a historical hairwork pattern from a Penelope Ladies’ Magazine from 1828.

Thank you and for making this reconstruction possible by sharing and translating this historical ladies magazine 🖤

looks what landed in the post. Hard word pays off. Super proud of myself
04/08/2026

looks what landed in the post. Hard word pays off. Super proud of myself

01/08/2026

What a wonderful day spent demonstrating Victorian hairwork at the Brontë Parsonage.

I didn't manage to take any photographs while I was working – the table was surrounded by curious visitors all day, and I was rarely without someone stopping to ask questions. A huge thank you to everyone who came over, watched, shared their thoughts, and took such a genuine interest in this remarkable but often overlooked craft.

My aim has always been to bring the history of Victorian hairwork to wider audiences, and days like this remind me why. Every conversation helps keep these skills, stories, and makers visible and alive.

It felt especially meaningful to demonstrate Victorian tablework here, as this was very likely the technique used to create Charlotte Brontë's own hair bracelet.

Thank you again for your curiosity, your thoughtful questions, and for making it such a memorable day.

On Saturday, 1 August, I'll be demonstrating Victorian table work, the technique used to create Charlotte's hair bracele...
18/06/2026

On Saturday, 1 August, I'll be demonstrating Victorian table work, the technique used to create Charlotte's hair bracelet, in the former servants' room beside Charlotte's bedroom.

Hairwork was once a familiar craft, transforming strands of hair into jewellery, keepsakes and tokens of remembrance. Today, these objects can seem strange, yet they carry stories of affection, labour, memory and loss.

If you've ever wondered how a bracelet could be woven from hair, come and see the process for yourself.

11am–1pm
2pm–4pm

Bring your curiosity.

Let's unpick history together.

Donna Lowson22,800Hair and wire2026A scold's bridle was a medieval torture implement used to punish predominantly women....
09/06/2026

Donna Lowson

22,800

Hair and wire

2026

A scold's bridle was a medieval torture implement used to punish predominantly women. Worn on the head, a bar would protrude into the mouth, making eating, drinking, or speaking impossible.

Simply gossiping was enough to land you in one of these. You would then be paraded through the streets to add to the humiliation.

So what happens when we make one from hair?

Made using Victorian hairwork techniques, a largely under-recorded predominantly women's craft tradition,
the body becomes the weapon.

Punishment for simply existing.

The unravelling of the hair shows us the structures at play here. Yet the hair retains it's former bound state

Material remembers
Coming undone is never linear.





07/06/2026

Material Remembers

Installation view from my degree show.

Bringing together works including 14 and 22,800, the installation explores hair as a material witness—holding traces of bodies, labour, memory, and time. Through processes of binding, accumulation, and repetition, the work considers how materials carry histories beyond the lives from which they emerge.
Material Remembers asks what persists when a material outlives its original context, and how acts of making might reveal what remains unseen.

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Sheffield

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