The Design
Walking through a dry coulee beneath basalt walls from the ancient floods of the glacial age, foot-tall clumps of tiny sunflowers smile up at you all along the path in our semiarid shrub-steppe ecosystem.. It’s the clump shape that inspired the ogee shape of the design, with many sunflowers and cup-like buds growing among the slim, jagged leaves. Indeed, even when the sun hides behind clouds, this little flower brings sunshine to the walk anyway, so inspiring the dark background. Throughout the many clumps of flowers, quail tracks appear on the path of the growing sunflowers that love the human-disturbed soil to start another plant.
This wildflower, Curlycup Gumweed, its interesting cup buds, the jagged thin leaves, and the quail tracks inspired the coordinating illustrations. First, a sketch of a clump of the flowers for a tea towel and calendar. Then the ogee pattern of the gumweed in bright yellows and soft greens on a dark green background sprinkled in colorful small dots creates the effect I felt while walking through the path on a cloudy day, yet finding sunshine in each little flower. So the jagged leaves form another coordinating pattern, along with a pattern of quail trail tracks in addition to a scattered sunflower pattern in both light and dark backgrounds. Both backgrounds also create a backdrop of striped patterns of lines of leaves and butterflies to help complete the effect of a walk through the coulee.
Inspiration
Curlycup Gumweed, grows everywhere in the United States, except the Southeast. A delight in yellows and sweet, soft green, it is a tiny member of the sunflower [Asteraceae] family. The yellow sunflowers are only an inch wide and the plant is just a foot tall clump of these flowers, whose buds look like cups. Those bud cups and the flowers that contain a gooey resin give the flower its name: curlycup gumweed [Grindelia squarrosa].
The resin on the leaves has been used as chewing gum. The yellow petals and green buds have been used to create yellow and green dyes. Homeopathic medicines use these plants for asthma and coughs. Native Americans used the plant as a wash for burns. Since they bloom from late June all the way through September, there’s a good chance you’ll run into some species on your walks through nature areas of the United States.
The Curlycup Gumweed Collection
Inspired by the idea of “clumps” of small flowers, I sketched the design in an ogee shape, creating the ogee dark pattern of the yellows and soft greens from the original photo’s palette. A light and a dark scatter pattern, which include the quail tracks too, provide a cozy variety to the collection. The hero pattern makes a lovely tea towel and calendar [top images].
For interest, a jagged leaf scatter design and a quail track pattern, both in dark green backgrounds, add coordinating designs to the set.
Finally, a striped pattern where the stripes are lines of new leaves occasionally dotted to emphasize a bud while butterflies fly about add a pleasing and cozy complementary design to the collection in both light and dark backgrounds.
See the Collection
See how the designs blend together in various products on Spoonflower or Red Bubble — in the Spoonflower Coulee Country Collection. See just the Spoonflower Curlycup Gumweed Collection here. Here are a few ideas. Click the image to view.
Enjoy the curlycup gumweed,
on the path or in your home decor!
Sources
Photos by Sheri Edwards
Art by Sheri Edwards
I wonder, if I draw a line... 