Luna, is a little ladybird. She is very soft and her bright warm colors, melts any child’s heart. Luna, is special; she lights up at night! Children love to give it a hug. It helps them sleep soundly through the night. Its soothing presence gives them comfort and company. Luna is a charming plush toy that also sparks storytelling among children.
Luna, the ladybird is inspired by my own love of chasing ladybirds in the park, during my childhood and bringing them back to my room. Sadly, I know from experience that the real ones start to die at night and need to be in their natural habitat. I also really telling stories about these little creatures I would capture. These incidents inspired me to paint them on my room’s ceiling fan! Its sweet how my parent’s have moved places but still ket the blades of that fan. :’)
About the process, overall this was a very satisfying thing to make. I was terrified of sewing before this project. It was my first time sewing, but my day was made when Loujong at the Visible Future’s Lab and she told me, “I have been sewing for so long but even my work isn’t as neat looking as yours!”
The whole thing started with careful planning. I bought three different kinds of fabrics with one of them being translucent/see through fabric and the others made out of soft plush wool. From the very beginning, I realized I chosen a very ambitious design for my project with less than a week’s time and only a limited number of options to book the lab for sewing. I think I did an excellent job with time management since I was done with most of my sewing before Monday. I however struggled a little bit because of lack of soldering and circuit making experience. I also first struggled with sourcing the white colored LEDs. I soldered it once and my 6 white LEDS were not evenly dim, even though I put them all in parallel, with 100 Ohm resistance each. I think the whole circuit was loosing some energy in the way I did my connections. Then I took help from my classmates who had more experience and put together a neater more efficient circuit! So happy that it all worked out well!
