sometimes my embroidery is influenced by the shape of the hat in itself.

1.  this pixie bonnet from the book reaches from way under the chin to the sky at the point and therefore lends itself to embroidery that moves upward and diagonally across most of the hat.  the other side has just a butterfly or two to echo the ones on this side.

2.  this commission was for a wood-elfish hat with aspen leaves embroidered on it.  i like leaves still attached to the branches, so i followed the distinct decreases down the top of the hat to form the branch, integrating the decrease into my design.

3. when it comes to flat hats, i often think of them as landscapes.  they remind me of painting, a blank slate with the background colors already there.  it makes perfect sense in such a landscape for a tree to grow.

4.  often, when hat have earflaps, i can’t help but integrate them into the embellishments, or at least take them into consideration as part of the whole. this super hero helmet hat’s embroidery echoes the shape of the earflap up into the rest of the cap.

each new shape and space gives me new opportunities to experiment with places to put embellishments and each new place has the ability to inspire new embroidery.  i don’t think i would have been inspired to put a flock of butterflies on a flat hat, or a whole tree on a pointy hat.  like site specific dance, there is site specific embroidery ;)