Mourning Embroidery and Memorials

I've been thinking a lot of about mourning pieces from early America. What sparked my interest was the image below. I felt I had little connection with that kind of mourning ritual. The way Americans mourn death has changed over the years; mainly due to a less rigid societal structure.

This is a mourning embroidery on silk with water color. It was a common project made by girls when they went to school.

Death rings usually had death symbols such as skeletons or skulls, commonly under crystal cut coffin shapes, like the one above.

This is an interesting piece. The artist fell in love and painted her breast in this jewelry box and presented it to her lover. For monetary reasons he married someone else, but the box remains in his family. It is called Beauty Revealed. I guess some would find this explicit, but I thought it an intimate gesture.

The above images are from The Art of Family: Genealogical Artifact in New England.

Peter Benes and D. Brenten Simons. Boston, MA: New England Historic

Genealogical Society, 2002.

Using this research as a jumping off point, I made prototypes of death pieces for Jace. I would like to use his hair for the embroidery, but presently his hair is buzzed, and I don't have the patience to couch each one onto the fabric.