Do you love trees?

I find them inspiring.

Back in high school, the oak tree that grew next to my parents' house was the inspiration for many of my teenager-made paintings and collages. (Sorry not to have any photos of these pre-digital pieces. I used to have slides! Remember those?!).

Further back, in elementary school, I used to climb the same tree, who I had named 'Isabelle.'

Past Tree Hats

While my tree-climbing days are past, the attraction remains strong. You can see this in one of my previous hat collections, the Mossy Forest Series. Those hats incorporated the image of the woods as being a somewhat dark location, which also is the setting of many fairytales such as Little Red Riding Hood.

New Tree Hats

However, this new series has a lighter and more playful feel. These hats are brighter in mood/color and include the golden light of California which I wrote about in a previous blogpost on making practice hats for the Beaniefest in Australia..

 

Trees as Design Elements

As part of this series, I used whole trees (versus textures) as my inspiration. 

 

 

First up, is Italian Cypress Bucket Hat. If you have been to Italy (or California) you may have seen these striking, tall trees growing all in a row. They are the tall, columnar trees in the foreground of many of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings.

This bucket-style hat has five pod-shaped trees that circle around one side of the hat. Additionally, it's palette harkens California, with the inside of the hat being the same orange color as the California Poppy. In my shop, you can see the inside of the hat. 

The hat certainly has more than a bit of whimsy to it but it is still quite a functional and practical hat).

For details and photos of the hat, please visit HERE.

 

More Fun with Trees

 

Tree silhouette as inspiration is repeated with this second hat, a beret.

Instead of the tall cypress, this time it's an almost lollipop-like shaped tree that was my jumping off point. Almost like an archetype of what a tree is ... when you are four-years-old. 

The result is a light-hearted sky blue beret with a 'crown' of trees - rather like a floral crown. This hat has an almost Seussical feel to it, having one of the five trees standing up above the rest and practically waving like a Truffala Tree  (only it's not orange-colored).

 

Whimsical yet Wearable

Both recent hats are fun and have a bit of fairytale magic to them. However, unlike the rather tall hats in my Wizard Collection, these hats are quite wearable.

Because they are not too tall, you can wear them in a car or in your daily life.

Can you imagine yourself wearing one of them to the grocery store? It would be easy-peasy and it would be a wonderful way to bring more fairytale magic to your everyday life!

 Visit my Shop to see these Tree-Inspired Hats!