When fibre artist Hadley Westwood saw a striking collection of photos from Antarctica, she was struck by an idea.
She wanted to capture the stark beauty of the ice continent in her art, and share it with others.
Her focus — the Australian Antarctic Division's Mawson Station research outpost.
"I had a special collection of tapestry wools," she said.
"Remembering the iconic image of Sir Douglas Mawson [the pioneering Australian Antarctic explorer] in his hand-knitted balaclava, I decided to knit the 15 Mawson Station winter expeditioners a hat each, depicting the relevant Mawson themes.
The photos were taken by a friend's son, David Waterhouse, while he was wintering at Mawson Station and Ms Westwood first saw them in 2016.
The experienced textile artist, who lives at Waitui on the NSW Mid North Coast, then embarked on a long process to create the beanies.
She drew up a pattern for each hat, plotting the relevant image on graph paper and measuring out the number of stitches needed for each square.
Each beanie took several weeks to complete.
"I enjoyed the project and the research so much I vowed to knit three hats per year for Mawson winterers and one for their charity auction on the ship returning the expeditioners from Antarctica."
Hadley hats
It led to the creation of the Hadley Hats Art Project, with Ms Westwood producing differently themed woollen headgear for the Australian Antarctic expeditioners each year.
Ms Westwood takes inspiration from expeditioner photos posted online and themes vary, from icebergs through to krill, and more recently phytoplankton.
Ms Westwood also spends time researching the themes for her beanies.
"In 2018, after my tour of the krill laboratory at the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), I knitted four krill-themed hats and two more for Dr Rob King and Dr Stephen Nicol at the AAD," she said.
"In 2019 I knitted three iceberg-themed hats."
This year Ms Westwood has increased her efforts.
A special beanie for Sir David Attenborough
Due to the detail and time involved, Ms Westwood said she didn't give her hats away to just anyone.
One of those people is Sir David Attenborough.
"Dr Rob King commented to me [after seeing the beanies], 'I wonder how different the world would feel when felt from a brain enveloped by a phytoplankton?'" Ms Westwood said with a laugh.
"I immediately thought, 'Whose head would I wish to see one of my hats on?'"
Sir David Attenborough's name came straight to mind and Ms Westwood decided to send him a phytoplankton hat and a letter explaining her project.
Ms Westwood said she was delighted to recently receive Sir David's prompt reply.
"I knew as soon as I got the letter out of my letterbox … it was an airmail letter addressed in his slightly wobbly handwriting, I knew exactly what it was," she said.
"I got out my very special letter opener and sat down and opened it very carefully and there was a short but lovely note inside:
Ms Westwood said it was an exciting moment.
"It was very cool … I've always been a Sir [David] Attenborough fan," she said.
