Brooches Enhanced With Delicate "Human Hair" Line Drawings

I'm not sure what the mainstream public might think about wearing single strands of human hair encased in resin, but I'm inclined to believe that weird is still good.

If you carefully scrutinize these photos of Melanie Bilenker's fashion-forward brooches, you might easily mistake her line drawings for what could have been easily produced with a thin magic marker.

She must be an unbelievably patient individual because in order to create such precision in her images, she had to hand-place every single strand with a pair of tweezers.

Incorporating human hair into jewelry and fashion -- while not new -- has only been practiced fleetingly throughout the ages.

The Victorians favored the notion of storing bits of loved ones' hair in tiny lockets that they wore at all times, but when someone passed on, they took things a bit further by grinding up some of their hair, mixing it with a colored pigment and then painting tiny portraits with it.

In effect, the act of incorporating any part of a loved one into something permanent -- art, jewelry, etc. -- helps us to carry their memory with us that much longer.

The fact that Bilenker uses her own hair in all of her brooches might creep some people out, but it offers a real signature of her work and presence that stands the test of time.

Capturing common scenes of everyday life with a unfettered artistic style, her brooches, made with wood, precious metals and sealed with resin, would provide an interesting accent to any lapel, bag or hat brim.