Stick Barrette Development

I've started developing a stick barrette, and if I can get the basics worked out so that they function well, and I can make them in a reasonable amount of time (so I can keep them affordable!) I'm going to sell them over at my Etsy store. If you happen to check in here, and have anything you'd like me to know, please post a comment below.

Stick barrette with leaf design hair stick

My mom and my sister wore these hair accessories when I was a kid, and I've always liked the simplicity of them. Even simpler, its the stick by itself, so I think I'm going to be offering both if I can get them worked out. What really got me think about them is a couple of big knots in a piece of walnut I have in the shop; knots are typically a pain to deal with, especially loose knot, and even more so when using hand tools. And its not just the knot, buy the wood around the knot, because the grain gets all screwy as the tree grows around the branch. This crazy graining can be really beautiful, but tough to deal with, so I started to think: what can I make to take advantage of the grain? Something curved would take advantage of the grain and give it strength if the grain lines follow the curved piece.

Three nested barrettes tucked back in where they grew

These first few photos show how I traced the curving grain lines around the knot, which I think will really improve the barrette. Normally wooden barrettes came in two types: flat-ish ones that don't really work well with a through stick, and are typically glued to a metal clip-type barrette, and the curved type of wooden barrette, which is susceptible to breaking where the straight grain of the wood runs through the thing curves of the barrette.

The three sizes will work for different volumes of hair

Both the curves of the barrettes and the sticks that I'm working on to go through them will follow the wood grain to strengthen them. The sticks are a little easier to do like that, simply by splitting the wood to size rather than cutting it. Splitting the wood naturally follows the grain lines, and the hair sticks that result can sometimes have softly undulating curves in them that come from the tree's growth. I'm betting that these curves will be both good-looking and help to secure them better in your hair.

My first hair stick test. I'll let you know how it goes.

I took a shot at a hand-split maple hair stick, and the first tester thought it was a little too thick. I wonder if it would be better for someone with thicker hair. This one is a little thicker than a pencil and the straight part of it, at 8-inches, is about a half-inch longer than a new wooden pencil. Overall this hair stick is about 9 1/2-inches.