DONNA LOWSON
Artist Researcher
Victorian Hair Work | Material Afterlifes | Embodied Archives
Hands on Victorian Hair Work Workshops
With artist and researcher Donna Lowson
Explore a forgotten craft where memory, material, and making meet.
Victorian hair work is an intimate tradition in which human hair was intricately woven into flowers, wreaths, and keepsakes, objects shaped by care, remembrance, and bodily presence. These workshops invite participants to spend time with this practice through touch, attention, and deliberate making.
These sessions are open to anyone curious about craft, material memory, or the layered histories embedded in overlooked techniques. No prior experience is needed, just patience, curiosity, and a willingness to work with an intimate material.
What to Expect
Making as encounter: through craft we explore how materials carry meaning across time and how histories persist in the tactile and material.
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A warm welcome and introduction to Victorian hairwork as a material and cultural practice
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Tools, techniques, and processes introduced with a live demonstration
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Guided hands-on making, crafting hair flowers with support and space for personal exploration
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Materials provided (including synthetic hair options)
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Small group sizes for an intimate experience
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Time to reflect, ask questions, and work at your own rhythm
Participants leave with a handmade piece, a sense of historical craft in action, and a deeper understanding of how hair carries presence and absence in its fibres.
Upcoming Workshops
Full practical details, including timing, accessibility, and booking — are available via the links below.
Bankfield Museum
February 21st
Bronte Parsonage Museum
8th April (Online demonstration talk)
23rd May
Buxton Crescent Heritage Trust
19th April
17th May
Previous Workshops
Images from past sessions documenting tools, processes, hands at work, and participant‑made creations.
Copyright: Donna Lowson
About the Workshops
These workshops form part of an ongoing practice‑led research project into Victorian hairwork, feminist craft histories, and material afterlives. They sit alongside Donna Lowson’s wider artistic practice, which uses hair as a craft encounter, and a space for reflective engagement with embodied histories.
If you have any questions about the workshops or are interested in hosting a session, please get in touch via the contact page.