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Braids and Feathers -The Living Head Dress

A RANT ABOUT ART - This style of wearing my hair is my creation. It continues to be an evolving art form. You may see it as just a hairdo, but it is an expression of my creativity, it is an art form displayed on a walking gallery. I do not pretend to have invented braiding, colored synthetic or feathers. I have, however, created a unique combination of those three existing elements which truly is one of a kind. If you choose to mimic these pieces, do not claim this idea as your own. I am truly flattered and glad, just please remember that this is ART, it is MY ART, MY SOUL and MY CREATION. Art is to be shared and enjoyed, but not to be stolen, nor the identity of the creator usurped (rant off).

Photo by Karl Seifert Photography, reproduced with permission 2001. I cheated & colorized Karl's black and white shot with the five sets I have adorned myself with so far.

(left to right):
Set 1 - Black, Red, Yellow
Set 2 - Black, Blue, Turquoise, Green, Light Green, Yellow
Set 3 - Purple, Blue, Turquoise, Fuschia, Red, Orange, Yellow
Set 4 - Purple, Fuschia, Red, Orange, Yellow
Set 5 - Blue, Turquoise, Light Blue, Light Green, White
Set 6 - Greeb, Turquois, Light Aqua, Light Green, White

Here are some other 'real' shots of the sets, with a narration of their evolution. Some pics are better than others, but you get the idea :)

Set 1: screaming my head off at Burning Man 2000. Set 1 started it all & happened quite by accident. I showed up with a bunch of colors to get my first-ever set of braids (to make my hair Burning Man Proof). I ended up with only black, red and yellow on my head. The feathers were a serendipitous afterthought/coincidence. They had been hanging on long strings on my bedroom wall for 7 months. I had orinally planned to have them braided into large braids for Burning Man. When I got home from braiding I realizd that I had completely forgotten to bring the feathers with me. Damn! Well, what's stopping me from just tying the things onto the ends of the braids? It took a while, but voila!, a new creation was born. I loved them, and best of all, so did most people I met. Thanks to a great boss, I've been able to continuously wear braids and feathers ever since, and get more bold with each set.

Set 2: showing off my tonsils on Halloween 2000. I got a bit more adventurous on set 2, and much more deliberate with the order and blending of the colors. Still, I was limited by the available colors of feathers and synthetic I could buy. I was really suprised that I could wring so many combinations out of 6 measly colors of synth.

Set 3: hanging out on Gossamer, the super Ducati. Set 3 was my first 'out there' set. I finally got the balls to do away with the color black, which I kinda held onto as my one bit of 'normalcy'. This was also the first instance where I started to hand-dye some of the feathers that were not available in the colors I wanted. Set 3 also saw the first braid/motorcycle interaction when I got my Ducati Monster. Yet another fabulous thing about braids is that you don't get helmet head! Not to mention, car drivers tend to notice me better *and* remember that I'm in a lane once they have passed me. They told us in Motorcycle Safety School that our best defense on the road was to wear bright colors. No problem there.

Talking with my neice, Lilly. For set 4, I made a fabulous new discovery - a great store in SF that sold every damn color of synthetic under the sun. I also perfected my feather dying technique on this set. I found that instead of one shade of a color, 5 or 6 variants of a shade made the feathers even more vibrant

Set 5: more pics with Gossamer. Set 5 is my favorite by far. For this set I stayed within just two color ranges (blues and greens), focusing instead on tones and subtle changes in hue. I had 24 dye lots for the feathers & the extra effort really shows. This is the set I intended for Burning Man 01. It was incredible to see the reactions of fellow Burners to this set.

Much like set 5, but this time in the greens. Again, I had 24 dye lots for the feathers This is the set went with me to Ducati Revs America in Las Vegas. Got a lot of "hey are you a showgirl?" I guess that all depends on what you want to see...