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.
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.
