By Emma Bouthillette 

Staff Writer

Imagine having something tangible to memorialize a lost loved one, something you can touch to remind you of the joy they once brought. Kennebunk resident Giselle Rec has found a way to make that happen — if your loved one is a horse, of course. 

For the past year, Rec, 36, has created jewelry from horse tails brought to her by equestrians wishing to keep a piece of their horse with them forever.

Rec dreamt of working with horses since the day her aunt brought her to see “The Black Stallion.” By 2001 she had her own horse, boarding it at the Hi Stepping Equestrian Center in Arundel. When owner Theresa Guillemette’s son, 12 at the time, lost his beloved horse in spring 2007, Rec was present when a chunk of its tail hair was saved. 

As Christmas 2007 approached, Rec began thinking about the horse hair and wanted to do something “nice” for Guillemette’s son in memory of his horse. She said as she began researching “things to do with horse hair,” she stumbled upon companies that made jewelry out of tail hair. 

“I was blown away by how expensive the jewelry was, so in true Yankee style, I thought, ‘I could do something like this,’” Rec said. 

So she began playing with hair from her Haflinger horse, Stanley, starting with a standard three-strand braid and then trying different ways of weaving the hair together. Her first finished product was a loose, three strand braid with hairs sticking out from the bundle. She said was not satisfied with the product.

“I developed this compulsive drive to make it better,” Rec said. 

She said she continued to try different braids, settling with a four-strand round braid, and discovered many things along the way. She said all the hair had to be the same length, the end caps to the jewelry were hard to find — and the glue to hold it all together has become her trade secret. 

“I had made a bracelet for him by Christmas,” Rec said. “Then other people in the barn wanted one to.”

It was not long after that Rec said her business, “Hairloom Treasures,” began. With a comprehensive Web site and a desire to make something for others to remember their horses by, Rec has horse-lovers dropping off tail hair by the plastic bag load. 

“It has become about 70 percent clients with horses still with them and 30 percent who have lost good friends,” Rec said.

As orders come in, Rec asks her customers if they would prefer a bracelet or necklace, and what kind of charms or end caps they would prefer. The tail hair comes to her sealed in a plastic bag, right off the horse’s tailbone. She cleans the hair using hot water and laundry detergent, lets it dry, then picks out the uneven pieces of hair. 

Then she uses “Quick Braid,” a spray horse handlers use to braid manes and tails, to make the hair sticky and easier to braid. From start to finish, Rec said a bracelet takes about two hours to make.

During her initial research, Rec said the jewelry she makes from horsehair is reminiscent of mourning jewelry made during the Victorian era from hair of deceased people. 

“That was how you remembered someone you lost then,” Rec said.

And for those who have lost their horses, they save tails. 

“When you lose a horse, it is an easy piece to keep and be with you always. It won’t deteriorate, and it’s the last tangible earthly piece of something that brought someone so much joy,” Rec said. 

On Nov. 15, Rec had a table at the School Around Us Craft Fair at Kennebunk High School. As people walked up to her display, and she told them the jewelry was horsehair, she said nearly everyone did a double take. 

The coarse, knotty hair of a horsetail becomes a smooth, rope-like braid, and clamped with silver or gold end-caps, it is hard to tell the true nature of the fiber. 

“The thing about horse hair is — if you look at it under a microscope — there are little barbs like fish hooks. That’s why the hair is used for violin bows,” Rec said. “So once I braid the hair, it stays in place.”

Rec said she has sought sturdy end caps and charms for her jewelry so her customers never have to take it off.

“That piece never needs to leave you,” Rec said. 

While horse enthusiasts enjoy the jewelry, Rec’s husband was skeptical of the average person wanting to wear a piece of jewelry made from horse hair, and from a horse they did not know. 

“One woman was so disgusted by it at the fair, she said she just had to buy one,” Rec said. 

For the non-equestrian wishing to buy a piece of jewelry, Rec said a lot of hair has been donated by her horse Stanley and some of his barn mates. In her sample box of bracelets and necklaces, Rec said she can usually identify which horse the hair came from.

One of her current orders is a chunk of tail from a champion show jumper in Georgia, Rec said. The clump of tail is more than what she needs to create a piece of jewelry, and Rec said she will take some of the remnants to create another piece for retail. 

Hairloom Treasures has become the most successful of all her “crazy horse schemes,” but Rec said she enjoys making the jewelry more for her customers than for the profit.

“It’s still just a hobby,” Rec said. “It helps me keep Stanley and his hay.”

Samples of horse hair jewelry and instructions to order an “Hairloom Treasure” can be found on Rec’s Web site www.hairloomtreasures.com.