Poppy Scarf

Remember those halcyon pre-pandemic days, when a person could frivolously waste rubbing alcohol instead of using it to sanitize things?  Remember my scarf-dyeing and doodling project?  Well, it's time to get inspired by blank silk canvasses again! 

This project was done in three steps: draw, soak, and detail.  First I drew the flowers on a fold, then I soaked the whole scarf in alcohol to make the ink run and transfer from fold to fold (it didn't work very well), then I detailed the fuzzy outlines to make the whole, symmetrical picture. 

The three pictures below show the prep work for the scarf.  It's already tea and turmeric stained.  Now I fold it and press it, to make creases.  I do this so I can draw on a folded surface, and then mirror the image to the other folds.  Note the work surface covered by a plastic bag. 

Next I use a combination of Tulip Graffiti fabric markers and Sharpie permanent markers to draw my design.  These are California poppies. 

The poppy is a storied and symbolic flower of the family Papaveraceae.  In the genus Papaver, we have the most famous type: Papaver somniferum, or opium poppy, a large poppy that can come in white, lavender, or red colors.  It's used to make opium, and its seeds are harvested for food.  That's where the poppy seed on your muffin comes from.  Because opium comes from poppies, P. somniferum has come to be associated with sleep, pain relief, and comfort; for instance, in the Wizard of Oz, the field of poppies makes the characters fall asleep.  (This is not how actual poppy fields work, but it's a fantasy story!)

The opium poppy, red with a black center, has famously been used as a symbol of WWI remembrance, and in the US at least (possibly other places, but I don't know) as a symbol of support for war veterans generally.  If you give your pennies to the VFW, they give you a tiny cloth poppy to say thanks. 

The California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) comes from the same family (Papaveraceae) but different genus (Eschscholzia).  It doesn't contain opium.  It's native to the Unites States and Mexico, and is most famously a beautiful yellow, though it also comes in white, pink, and red varieties.  Its center is much less showy than the bold black center of an opium poppy. 

For this project, I choose to draw California poppies because they are all over my yard.  The ones in my yard are yellow, but I opt to draw a reddish variety, because the scarf is already stained yellow, and I want higher contrast with the flowers. 

I only draw on one fold of the scarf, and then, keeping it folded, I soak it with Isopropyl rubbing alcohol and let it sit in a plastic bag for a few hours, hoping the alcohol-soluble ink will spread and stain the other folds.  Then when I open it, I'll have a mirrored pattern, much the same way as when cutting a paper snowflake. 

Alas, this doesn't happen the way I want it to.  I don't know if it's the ink not being as soluble as I thought, or the alcohol not being strong enough, or the folds being too thick, but only the slightest of fuzzy outlines transfer from layer to layer. 

No matter!  I can use those fuzzy outlines as a guide to draw in the details!  My friend's lightbox (protected by the plastic bag) gives good service to this endeavor! 

I rinse and iron the scarf, then go to work with my pens again.  It's quite fun and relaxing.  Sometimes I stipple with little dots, enjoying the way the ink runs along the threads and turns the dots into plus signs.  Other times I use long slanting lines to fill the flowers. 

When it's finished, I love the poppy scarf!  It has a folk-art feel to it, but I don't know which folk tradition it looks like.  Maybe Os or Rogaland rosemåling?  It's much more detailed and finicky than rosemåling, but has the symmetrical floral motifs that characterize some of those Nordic works.  Rosemåling cum pointillism, ha ha!