Copper Lily

For the Scent of a Memory challenge, my inspiration was the IV drug Heparin.
For me, Heparin has very distinct taste and smell which evokes a vivid memory. During cancer treatment the nurse would inject this blood thinner before starting the heavy hitter chemo drugs. Every time they injected the heparin I would get an absolutely definite taste/smell right in the back of my nose and throat.

The best way I can describe the sensation: take a deep whiff of a Stargazer Lily while holding a copper penny in your mouth. To this day I cannot be around Stargazer lilies. Their scent makes me nauseous.  (The taste of copper has not really been a problem as long as I don’t put pennies in my mouth.)

I knew I had to pursue this idea because it was the first thing that came to mind when I read the challenge.  I thought it would be interesting to make something positive and beautiful (or at least visually appealing) from this negative association. By using the Stargazer image and copper color palette, I concentrated on the smell/taste itself and not the memory it triggers.


Technique: I used metallic thread to make the veiny lines in the background.  The rest of the piece was created with cotton fabrics and quilted with poly and rayon thread.