B is for Braid: Plaited Prints + Paintings

I've got braids on the brain, perhaps because thinking about Mother's Day makes me remember all those mornings my mom braided my hair before school. Perhaps it's the approach of hot weather and the desperate need to get all this hair up off of me. Perhaps it's simply because braids are one of the simplest, prettiest, and most elegant technologies in the world...

• Lisa Congdon drew this amazing braid, complete with berries and mushrooms. Intertwining berry branches into my braids would be no problem, but mushrooms might prove to be a disaster.
• The immensely talented Wild Unknown has done it again with their ABC Dream Prints- B is for Braid is of course my favorite. The impressive shading makes that braid look so wonderfully thick and heavy.
• Ever since a commenter mentioned that the Bunny Girls print I wrote about would be perfect in a bathroom or walk-in closet, I've been a bit obsessed with the idea of dressing room/table art. This subtly particolored Braided Hair print by Emily Green is feminine and modern, and so reasonably priced that it wouldn't be a catastrophe if it got damaged by steam in my bathroom. But I'd still be really sad.
• What a fierce head of hair! Braids that become waves that become ships — oh, to be a Nordic princess. Pique Studios' Nordic Braids illustration makes my own vastly inferior Nordic head of hair jealous.
• Braided Paperwhites II by Red Tail Studios is the only non-hair piece, featuring instead the braided leaves of paperwhites once the blooms have expired. An ordinary garden feature made bold.
• I often wear my hair like Screech Owl Design's Butterfly Girl — it's one of the few hairstyles that stays in place for the whole workday. Butterflies don't usually land on me, though.
• I had a feeling that Emily of The Black Apple would have at least one braided heroine, and she came through beautifully with Ava of the Oddfellows' Orphanage. Again, I braid my hair all the time and birdies never land on me. I wouldn't really want these San Francisco pigeons on my shoulder, but I wouldn't mind a parrot or two.
• These last two pieces are the ones that started it all. Oh Joy! featured the lovely Anne Sage of Rue Magazine, and Anne mentioned her favorite prints by Lisa Congdon. It's Simple is available as a limited-edition print, and the original It's Complicated is available directly from Lisa.