Away this week...

but I'll be back by the time you're reading this!!

xoxoxox

Les

Ladybug Charm Girl

with the heart of a child your dreams come true  

"Delight, happiness, and playful spirit symbolize the Ladybug. She shall bring abundance of blessings. The red shield and black spots that cover her wings announce her unique and playful spirit that bring smiles wherever her heart takes her on her journey. 

The Ladybug is a symbol of taking action on your dreams, as she is related to gardens, her very presence represents planting the seeds of your dreams. Water it, give it sunshine and gratitude, and it will grow.The spiritual meaning of Ladybug is to take inventory of what fills your heart, living as your true self and what makes you happy and fulfilled."

I know Spring has arrived when I see my first Ladybug! They have such a gentle nature about them that makes my heart full of joy.

Ladybug Charm Girl

Design

For these Charm Girls, I wanted to create a flowing curve of a Chinese doorway...open to all.

If we look at this design, you can see the curve of the hat framing the face and repeating in the jacket framing the skirt as each holds this curved shape...

Color

In creating my Ladybug Charm Girl, I wanted to express happiness. I decided on the use of color to convey it. Red...like the Ladybug. I went with a brighter red that is closer in hue to the leaves of Spring to represent new freshness...just unfolding to reach the sun and all possibilities of growth.

Expanding off the red, of course black was needed. I found it in this beautiful silk Chinese brocade, which I lined in the Chinese red fabric. 

As for the rest, I wanted texture and nubbiness so I choose this tussah silk loosely woven fabric for her jacket. The gold-tone color is repeated in her pants in dupioni silk.

Looking closer

I love to use the design print within my fabrics as a centerpiece whenever possible. For this hat, I cut the fabric so the turquoise medallion was centered in the top knot of the hat.

 The little button closers were made from the red stabilized silk with added glass tiger print beads.

 To mimic that red bow, I made small single pieces for the linen shoes. The shoes are lined with vintage kimono fabric that peeps out in the piping on the center front of the shoe.

Within my Charm Girl series, I love to use small enameled charms...set inside a small gourd that I carefully finish with a gold finish in the interior and all over high gloss lacquer. I like to see the natural patina of the gourd pop out as the gloss cures. The gourd is finish around the edges with linen threads.

 

Coming together

For the overall design, with the curves of the hat and jacket, some balance was needed. You can see now how I  found this in the square design of the bows on the jacket and shoes and the roundness of the top knot and gourd.

Final Note

I have created these Charm Girls for many, many years. I love them- not unlike all my dolls. 

Years ago, I was contacted by a French Canadian company asking my permission to use my Charm girl for inspiration in a book about marionettes...it is nice to see how art reached many in many different forms.

“As you move toward a dream, 

the dream moves toward you.” 

― Julia Cameron

Butterfly

Over the last couple years I have been drawn to the stages of life...perhaps because I have been through enough of life to recognize/experience these stages and my hope is to be learning from them...

The Child: learning, forming intuition

The Maiden: discovering individual creative potential

The Mother: giving birth to this creativity

The Crone: listening and sharing gathered wisdom

I think that we as humans can jump back and forth between stages a bit...hopefully not going all the way back to childhood...although I feel that I am constantly learning and still discovering untapped potential creativity...but hopefully have given birth to many and now continuing onward in sharing my knowledge gained over my 20+ years in the textile art field...

image credit

Butterflies have a "complete" life cycle. This means that there are four distinctive stages, each of which looks completely different and serves a different purpose in its life.

The Egg: tiny, round, and close to food

The Caterpillar: rapidly growing body

The Chrysalis: transformation stage

The Butterfly: wings!

I believe we have many things in common with the butterfly's stages of life, especially the discovering who we are, understanding our transformation, and taking flight!

The Butterfly

All Photography: Mark Mortensen

In this piece, I chose to have her vest open as a book to revel the meaning or symbolism of the butterfly, English on one side and Chinese on the other...mirrored expression but of the same.

The Butterfly symbolizes renewal and rejuvenation, the ability to bounce back from setbacks or disappointments, a transformation of spirituality. They stand for beauty and metamorphosis. It symbolizes the human. 

In China, the butterfly symbolizes long life and beauty... the butterfly is symbolic of the undying bond as each mirrored wing is connected in the middle at the heart. As Butterflies float from flower to flower, this represents a good social life for the young at heart, joy, and the essence of happiness.

The Close Up

This Butterfly is my own design. This design that came to me intuitively...maybe from being connected to my heart??

For the hat base I used a magenta silk brocade that I purchased years ago in China...

The embroidered butterflies, I backed with Asian flowered cotton and trimmed out using a gold cording adding tiny stamens as the antenna.

Close up of face with (love this) texture of silk crepe. Hand painted eye(s). Shading in pastels. 

 Closer still

As close as you can get! You can barely see the embroidered eyebrow through her bangs.

In keeping with the Southern China traditional design style, I always use a cross stitch form of geometric embroidery. Little glass bead for closure.

Here again the embroidery done on the sleeve cuff is mimicking the butterfly design. 

 The hands are armatured with copper wire.

Close up of the cuff embroidery and the black linen shoes lined with magenta dupioni and soles of Asian metallic cotton. Tiny special flowers glass beads are used for the shoe closures.

The Hat

As I am designing, I keep in mind that I am working in a three dimensional aspect. So here, I would like to show you the Butterfly in the round...note how the Butterflies have landed on the hat here and there but still in balance... Like the circle of Life.

It's the Circle of Life

And it moves us all

Through despair and hope

Through faith and love

In the Circle

Till we find our place

On the path unwinding

in the Circle of Life.

Music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice- The Lion King

Lily

If you are reading this and have read my postings before, you know how I love research and delving into the meanings that support the pieces in my work as an artist. Be it in words or color balance I like my work to have layers that go beyond the cloth...

When creating Lily, I wanted something soft in color for the flower...Lavendar.

Both contain the energy and strength of red with the spirituality and integrity of blue. This is the union of body and soul creating a balance between our physical and our spiritual paths.

Lavendar is the color of the humanitarian, using its better judgment to do good for others. Combining wisdom and power with sensitivity and humility.

百合

The Lily (百合, bǎi hé) is said to help a person forget his troubles. The lily is a symbol of summer and abundance, and some believe it represents one hundred years of love.

The lily is used as a lucky charm and maintain that it averts the effects of the evil eye upon them. The lily is also a good choice for girlfriends because it means unity.

Lily from afar: 

My color palette for Lily was fairly neutral in with exception of her hat with its brighter values. I captured balance between the hat's brightness by bringing the embroidery in a bright thread flowing down the vest and grounded in her pant hemline. Her blouse front opening and the sleeves also mimic this embroidered thread detail.

Looking at Lily closer, you can see the underside of the leaves to be of a dark olive with gold swirls moving throughout. This gold also is picked up in the flower center stamens of silk ribbons. The band is of Chinese silk brocade trimmed with vintage cording this all frames her face and in a sense creates a border between doll and hat.

In Detail:

The Lily flower is of silk dupioni backed with an Asian cotton again with gold accented flowers. The leave tops are of silk dupioni centered embroidered with magenta thread balancing the band.

Her hand sculpted face is covered with silk crepe and delicately painted with chalks and hand painted eyes. I like to use the minimum of color just to accent the sculpting. I also LOVE the texture of the fabric- I enlarged this photo so you can see it very closely! She is thinking...

When most of us think of Chinese embroidery, we think of the flowers of the north. My interpreted hats are of the south and in-keeping with that culture I embroider my pieces using a geometrical design that is more traditional of the southern regions of China.

Blouse and vest and in silk. The interior of the vest opens as would a book holding messages of the flower symbolism in English on one side and Chinese on the other.

The pants are of silk as the vest. There are three rows of embroidery tying into one design. Shoes of linen with soles of Asian cotton and tiny triangular bead closure.

“Your spiritual path isn't always just something you find, 

you started it the moment you took your first breath, 

and ever since you're been getting closer and 

closer to remembering who you truly are!”

― Martin R. Lemieux

Balance of Life

We all strive for that wanted balance in our lives- don't we?? We think we have control over what comes and goes with in our lives. I have found that life is - the unbalance. It is how we deal with situations that helps us grow and find, within ourselves, our own balance ...

“My point is, 

life is about balance. 

The good and the bad. 

The highs and the lows. 

The pina and the colada.”

Ellen DeGeneres

  ...and to try to keep your sense of humor through it all!

Balance of Life

In creating this piece, years ago, it was important for me to express balance. In that concept, I decided her to be fairly symmetrical...which I found that I don't create often. I guess I like things to be balanced in a more asymmetrical fashion...hummm, let's not delve into that too much!

I wanted her to hold two gourds...two open vessels for things to freely to come and go- not closed...even the way I parted her hair (horsehair) into two framing semi circles expresses openness. Feet centered and poised for readiness to gain balance. Hopefully, the entire piece express an overall calmness- at peace.

The fabric colors are close to opposite in the color wheel. This where my intuitiveness for being just in between the colors (as in asymmetrical) plays in- - read more here. I can't help it- this where I see my balance.

With this doll, I used fabrics of smooth silk and ones of more texture...balance - smooth and rough. Her hat fabric is from a mat vintage obi that has been over dyed in this deep orange. I placed the shibori print somewhat centered but with enough flow in the pattern to create movement...can't have everything squared-up or it takes on the role of being over thought or too manufactured.

I love using dupoinoi silk...this reads as a balance between the luster and the slubby texture. 

Here I used the gourds in all their earthiness and finished with a high gloss and gold painted interior. Linen threading finishes of the top opening.

The skirting fabric is silk that had been bound into small balls creating texture.

 

The shoes are of linen, here again opposed to the silks...lined interior and soles with the dupoini.

Finding balance...I find my art is what gives me balance...it is my grounding force. I am ever thankful that I can do this and share it with you.

“Keep your best wishes, 

close to your heart 

and watch what happens” 

Tony DeLiso