The Victorians were the last society to truly celebrate death.
Hair, a symbol of life, has been associated with death and funerals in many cultures, but having a lock of the deceased's hair in jewelry became very popular in England in the Victorian Era. From these hair and jet mourning symbols, which grew out of the desire to keep a loved one close to the wearer, hairwork took on larger dimensions in artistic ensembles preserved in shadow boxes.
"Hairloom", made with the artist's own hair, references this antique symbolic art of weaving human hair as a post mortem tribute in a shadow box, a Memento Mori folk art remembrance with hair - an extremely fine family heirloom.