Zen Hansen 11/6/22 Zen Hansen 11/6/22

Human Hair is a High Performance Fiber

Human hair consists of a tough keratin protein that is solid yet flexible, lightweight, absorbs oil and water, provides thermal insulation, and its tensile strength is similar to steel.

Zen Hansen 8/15/22 Zen Hansen 8/15/22

Fishing Flies Made With Human Hair

“Zen’s Gems”, Human Hair Flies

My modest online exploration of fishing materials revealed a few mentions of beard hair flies and a quite laughable reference to banning pubic hair flies from a European fishing competition for fear the hormones would give an advantage (yes, you read that right). But no significant leads regarding human head hair utilization for fishing materials beyond the one article I found in 1895 in the last post. I suspect more history is out there; I just haven't come across it yet and all the physical evidence has likely decomposed by now.

Zen Hansen 8/1/22 Zen Hansen 8/1/22

Human Hair Fishing Line

There are all sorts of technologies I've been researching (from fertilizers, fabrics, and biomedical), but because I am a fly fisherwoman, I also wondered how some of these nearly-lost traditional weaving strategies would have been similarly applied for crafting tools, such as fishing lines.

Zen Hansen 6/26/22 Zen Hansen 6/26/22

40 days

“40 days”, human hair, paper tags, wood clips, string, 31.5” x 32”

I once read people naturally shed between 50-100 hairs from their head every day. I was curious to know if this was true for me. I did my best to collect my natural sheds for 40 days (the final day being my 40th bday - this is part of my 4D collection)

Zen Hansen 6/25/22 Zen Hansen 6/25/22

tricharbor

How do we read data in nature? How does the organic matter we produce capture information about our lived experiences, and how do those experiences shape us?

40 rings for 40 years, shaped by my experiences.

Zen Hansen 6/24/22 Zen Hansen 6/24/22

familiar 40

Woven with my naturally fallen and collected hairs using a hairwork pattern from 1867. 40 strands of ‘unicorn’ gray hairs create little hearts running down the center of the band. A custom 14k gold enameled & engraved cat skull centerpiece brings it all together.

Zen Hansen 6/23/22 Zen Hansen 6/23/22

4D

4D is a Discovery of Decades, Dimensions, and Data through hair art in honor of my 40th birthday in June of 2022.

Constructed from my own strands of hair, these six new art pieces consider how this remarkable fiber observes, reacts, processes, stores, and relays information about our environment and personal experiences.