Coiled hairpins (June 2020)

Introduction

A few years ago, I had run across the image of a hair pin, and was really interested in it. Then, as things go, I forgot about it. Last month I ran across it again, and decided I wanted to try and make it. The hair pin is a "double ended, U-shaped pin decorated with a twisted wire which was found at Finsbury Circus" (Egan p 295). This pin is believed to be from the 14th century. The book suggests it was used to hold in place a woman's linen headdress. Whenever I have seen someone wearing a piece like this, it was directly in the hair to secure braids, which is more what I intend to use them for.

Design/Materials

Whenever I come up with random projects, there are a handful of knowledgeable people around me I go to for help. In this case, it was Mistress Ygraine of Kellswood. She has been a woman I have enjoyed learning from for many years now, and is a Laurel in varied arts. When I presented this to her, she apparently got very excited and began testing how to make them on her own, and took most of the design work upon herself. She ended up making an adorable little replica as proof of concept.

I did not find information about what material these pins were made out of. Copper or brass could have been likely options. Since Ygraine had copper of appropriate gauges already in her workshop, that is what I decided to go ahead with. The main arms of the pin are 14 gauge wire, with the coils being made of 22 gauge wire.

Construction

As this was only my second metal project ever, Ygraine was kind enough to lend me use of her shop and tools, and talk me through the process.

To begin with, I wanted to make a pin that was slightly longer than the example above. Ygraine used a 5" piece of metal to make the base, and used a 4" section of hand rolled coil at the top. When I put the pin in my hair, I thought it would be more secure if the prongs were a bit longer. Since I was making the prongs slightly bigger, I decided to also make the coiled section *slightly* bigger. I decided to make things 2" longer over all, and use 1 more inch of coil.

The first step was to cut two 9" pieces of copper. Once cut, I work hardened them with a hammer on a small metal plate/anvil. Using a dremel, the cut ends with then de-burred and tapered.

The next step was to make the copper coils using the 22 gauge wire. This was done using a piece of the 14 gauge wire as a template: I pinched the two wires together with my fingers, and rolled the smaller gauge of wire around the larger wire, until it was 5" long. A little 1/2 tail was left on both ends of the coil. The coil was then wiggled and slid off the larger gauge wire. Once again, the dremel was used to smooth the cut ends. This process was repeated to make a second coil.

Once the coils were finished, I gently wrapped the entire coil around the larger gauge wire, gently pulling on it as I went. From here I centered the decoration on the larger wire, and gently bent the whole thing around my thumb to create the U-shape. I repositioned the coils until I was satisfied, and then used pliers to wrap the tails of the coil around the prong wires.

Results/Final Thoughts

The final result is a pair of pins that are about 4.5" long, and quite frankly, I am rather a fan. As soon as I got home I braided my hair up, and used them to secure everything. There is *nothing* in my hair besides the pins. The ends of the braids are simply folded up inside the braid and tucked under. Overall the style seems very secure, and I think looks rather pretty. To note, the coils do get slightly stuck in my hair, however, they easily slide out once fully unbraided. Someone with a coarser or curlier hair texture than mine might have more issue with this than I do.

Reference:

Egan, Geoff and Pritchard, Frances; Dress Accessories c.1150- c.1450; Museum of London: HMSO 1991

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