Hollie Barclay to share hair work skills at Jindera's Forgotten Trades Festival

By day she works in local government cultural heritage, by night the 28-year-old immerses herself in the intricacies of Victorian hair work (although not by traditional candlelight).

Now, while the idea of turning human hair into elaborate jewellery pieces or art might seem a little, well, odd at first, Hollie insists there's a fascinating history behind this bygone practice.

"Humans are quite sentimental about hair," she explains.

"When you think about it, even today we still take a lock from a baby's first hair cut, put it in an envelope and store it away."

Human hair has been preserved as far back as ancient times, according to Hollie.

And there's a very good reason it's been used to hold on to the memory of someone who has died or celebrate new life.

Apart from its intrinsically personal nature, "hair doesn't decompose - it stays in really good condition," Hollie explains.

Her interest in hair work has its own fascinating beginnings.

As a little girl growing up in Albury, she had a "very big imagination", travelling to far-flung places by reading books and watching historic films.

But it was the sweeping 1997 James Cameron film, Titanic, that would cement her resolve to "get more in touch with the past".

"I was absolutely blown away by the costumes and the drama, and when I learned it was based on a true story, I was like 'sign me up'," she says.

Hollie would study archaeology at Melbourne's La Trobe University; she finished that degree but decided it wasn't for her - so she did a Masters in history as well.

"I thought I liked really old, ancient things - until I discovered you have to get really dirty and it's really labour intensive," she laughs.

But one of her archaeology subjects, on Victorian mourning practices, was to haunt her - in a good way.

"We visited local cemeteries and saw those big gothic tombstones," she begins.

"Victorians were fascinated with death.

"It was different to how we think today where we tend to be scared of it. It was also a time when the infant mortality rate was quite high."

There was a strict dress code in terms of mourning, Hollie explains.

"For example, if a woman's husband died she would wear black, heavy oppressive gowns for a period before moving through to dark purples, light mauves and greys.

"For a lot of people, it was high-end fashion; it was almost like, 'Well if I'm going to wear black, I'll look fabulous doing it' and they made a lot of effort to display wealth with rings and other adornments."

Hollie was to stumble across the work of Loel Thomson, who has a vast collection of women's fashion spanning 200 years, now based in Shepparton at the Museum of Vehicle Evolution (MOVE).

It would be the first time she would see hair work up close.

When it was first explained to her, Hollie thought it was all a bit "gross".

"I mean they used real hair and really old glue from boiled down horse fat," she says.

"But I kept getting drawn to it over and over again."

At first Hollie wasn't at all keen to try hair work herself; for a start where would she ethically source human hair?

"I thought if you're going to do it, you have to do it authentically," she says.

So she played around with ribbons until she read something on Instagram from people making historic costumes and jewellery who said it was about creativity not authenticity.

"So I started working with synthetic hair and experimenting with different techniques," says Hollie who also dabbles in dress-making, cross-stitch and other parlour crafts.

There were "a lot of failures" as she sought to master the intricate braiding technique - imagine unsightly clumps of matted hair, if you will - but she stuck with it.

Perhaps surprisingly, it's been the wonders of modern technology that have helped fine-tune Hollie's skills in an old-fashioned craft.

YouTube videos and a burgeoning social media community have provided welcome step-by-step instruction.

"It's wonderful that the older generation (women in their seventies) are discovering social media and becoming more comfortable sharing their stories," Hollie reflects.

"It's almost like crafting with your grandma ... there's a positive community of women sharing techniques and making sure they are passed on."

It's one of the reasons Hollie is also keen to share her insights and hands-on skills in hair work at Jindera Pioneer Museum's Forgotten Trades Festival on February 26.

The event highlights the bygone ways of bygone days; visitors will get to see traditional crafts such as basket weaving, felt craft, spinning, weaving, lace-making, calligraphy, jewellery making, hand shearing and gemstone cutting and faceting.

Hollie believes the festival is a fantastic opportunity for people to immerse themselves in a range of activities and crafts they might never have known existed.

"In re-creating the past, we are keeping alive the importance of history and the precious memories of these craftsmen and women," she says.