Spalted wood and hair wreaths, Vermilionville, LA

Cajun woodworker in Vermilionville

The Cajun village of Vermilionville held a few surprises for me: spalted wood and hair wreaths. 

Spalted wood

This is how it works: you cut down some pecan or pear or persimmon or other Louisiana native wood and let it sit outside for a year.  (Don't let it sit out longer than that or it will rot.)  Let the fungi invade the wood and create interesting patterns in the wood.  Then dry out the wood to kill the fungi and start woodworking.  Voila!  You have spalted wood.  The gentleman woodworker above creates boxes and duck decoys out of this wood.  

Hair art

Hair wreaths

If creating patterns in wood from fungi sounds a little odd, then stop reading now, because the framed wreath above is made out of human hair.  Before photographs, hair was a keepsake of loved ones and was often used to create intricate flower wreaths.  The example above is not closed at the top, indicating the individuals donating the hair were still alive at the time of its creation.  If a woman entered the convent, she shaved here head and sent the hair back to her family.  Nuns typically never visited home again once entering a convent; her hair was one of the few remembrances her family had.