Woman with the Gold Lily Hat — A Botanical Portrait

Every woman in my family has, at some point, worn flowers on her head. Church. Weddings. Carnival. Sunday lunch when nobody was coming over but she felt like it anyway. This piece is a portrait of all of them, condensed into one woman with a crown of lilies she made herself.

I stitched the hat in gold thread on purpose. Gold, in our tradition, isn’t just decoration — it’s the small inheritance passed down, the earring your grandmother pressed into your palm, the chain you don’t take off even to sleep. A gold hat means she is worth adorning.

At 17×11 in and US$429, this is one of the more approachable pieces in the collection — a good first Christine Norton for a collector just starting out, or a small anchor for a wall you’re building slowly.