suzanne | photoblog » Lock of Hair

02 Jul 2007 • 262 views

Lock of Hair

When my father died last September I came home with a lock of his hair. My family had no idea how to divide it between 13 people..his wife, children and grand-children. So they gave it to me with the intention that I find some way of doing jus that. My mother, sister and her son, visiting from Montreal left the island a couple of days ago with the little gau boxes in the photo...one for each member of the family.
They are traditionally used to house sacred artifacts or prayers. I filled each one with a mixture of essential oils in a whipped beeswax and jojoba paste and tiny bits of my dad's hair. The boxes were ordered when my family was here and arrived on my dad's birthday.
For those perfume makers out there, I used sandalwood, frankincense, white lotus flower, tuberose, neroli, orris root and rose.
I am looking forward to catching up on all that I have missed in the past month.

camera	NIKON D200
exposure mode	full manual
shutterspeed	1/80s
aperture	f/8.0
sensitivity	ISO400
focal length	11.5mm
resolution	929x619 pixels

Lock of Hair

comments (6)

Patrick Krolis

Suriname

2 Jul 2007, 03:33

Welcome back Suzanne, missed you out here. Sorry to hear about your dad. What a wonderful way to share the lock of hair. You are really an Artist!!

Suzanne: Thank you Patrick for such a welcoming comment. It's good to be back!!

kay

Portland

2 Jul 2007, 05:11

I am sure that your father is smiling about it all, Suzanne. It's a great way to feel him closer to you. I wish you and your family all the best...I know loss is hard. This photo is a lovely tribute to him.

Suzanne: Thank you so much, Kay, for your lovely wishes. I found, contrary to what I expected, that loss of that sort is soft, ever so much soft.

paul

2 Jul 2007, 20:51

A beautiful gift to your family (and your father)

I am very happy to see you back here

Suzanne: Thank you, Paul. I am happy too.

pixelpixie

9 Jul 2007, 01:59

I am so moved by what you have done, I wish I had done something like this when my father died. I was in my Twenties and could only think of my loss and not beyond. I still find it hard.

So glad you're back.

Suzanne: Crazy to be replying to this after such a long time. I saw your comment after one from Viktor (Nostalgia) that came today. Just couldn't let it pass without thanking you for your sensitive and thoughtful words even if it's way overdue. I have no idea why I didn't get back to you. Yeah..it's still hard in many ways but much softer than when I was struck with the finality of it all. I've internalized the best of my father and in that find him still in surprising ways. I didn't expect that. Thank you so much, Jose.

Atlanta, Georgia

20 Jan 2008, 03:08

One hundred and seventy two views and only four commented. There is something deeply wrong with people nowadays. That's a moving story you told us here, Suzanne. I knew you are a smart and creative lady, but this goes beyond a simple sum of those two.
Where did you learn the art of a perfume making?

Suzanne: What are you doing so far back in my archive, Viktor?!

....
Nothing wrong with anyone. We either respond or we don't. I often react emotionallly to an image and prefer to keep that little flicker of a flame to myself; writing an immediate response sometimes takes away from the experience. As for the perfumery, I studied the therapeutic use of essential oils and with that came the understanding of bottom, middle and top notes and which ones were which. I took it from there. To refer to what you said in your comment, the sum of the combined essences is much greater that it's individual parts..much like people, wouldn't you say?... Thank you so very much for your appreciation of the story behind this photo. It certainly means a lot to me.

Kathryn

Germany

23 Jan 2008, 13:24

We cling to what we must, don't we, Suzanne?

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