For Estella

I am thankful for many things and one of those is my two healthy children. Whilst browsing Twitter, I came across the story of Estella. Estella died at the age of only eight months of a genetic condition, SMA or Spinal Muscular Atrophy. I hope this blog can help raise awareness of the condition and at the same time, I would like to call for submissions of handmade stars to create a wall for Estella and all the children who use Bluebell Wood Hospice where Estella stayed.

Stars should be between 5cm and 15cm across and suitable to be displayed on a wall. Obviously stars will need to be child friendly, both visually and as I am hoping to create a piece than can act as sensory stimulation for the children at the hospice, the pieces will also need to be safe for small fingers...non toxic, no sharp edges, beads and buttons securely sewn or glued.

Wednesday 18 January 2012

First stars

It's official, we have some stars :) The lovely Ruthie_HB is the first person to ask for my address to send her finished stars, and also add to the Flickr Group :)

I have started too...I have a lot of ideas, and I may donate more than one star. This is my first, inspired by my two-year-old daughter's current love of moss. I will glaze it bright green with emerald green glass melted into the craters and little beads of glass fused to the centre of each one. Any stars I don't end up donating, I will sell in my shop and donate 20% to the hospice.



The project has been mentioned on a couple of blogs, Ruthie has blogged here and Nicola from Pouch Bags kindly mentioned the project in her interview for BlueVelvetChair blog.

Do let me know if you've mentioned the project in your blog, and I'll add a link :)

Saturday 7 January 2012

Working things out

I'm not much of a planner, I prefer the take a run at it and see what happens approach, but things seem to be falling into place quite quickly I think :) I have had a word with Sarah from Bluebell Wood Hospice and they would prefer the stars stuck directly to the wall, which is great....it means I don't need to worry about transporting boards or a large canvas to Sheffield. Also I think it will look better :) Most of the stars will be secured with strong sticky pads....strong enough to hold most pieces I would think. I'll sort that out, no need to worry about fixing on the back of your star. Also, after pixie's comment on my last post about placing different textures on Estella's hand, it gave me the idea to fix some of the stars with velcro pads so the stars can be taken to less mobile children. Bluebell Wood like this idea.

I've had a promising amount of interest over the last couple of days, with quite a few promises of stars. Thank you! At the moment there is not a deadline, but at least a few months. It will give the project time to gather momentum and spread the smashSMA message....and also I have to work out the logistics of getting to Sheffield ;) Probably most dependant on when my parents can look after the kids! Saying that, if you can make a star within the next few weeks, it would be lovely to see them and I'll post pictures here...which I'm sure will inspire others. If you do have a blog/shop to link to, I can do that here.

As the wall is partly about sensory stimulation, it would be lovely if anyone had any ideas that involved sounds, bells, crinkly fabric maybe?

Paintings, drawings, collage, prints, etc are also welcome. If you could mount the pieces on stiff board and make sure the surface can withstand little fingers, that would be excellent :)

When you have a star, please let me know in the comments, and I'll send you my address. If you would like to join the Flickr group, you can add work in progress and finished piece photos there...again, inspiration for others. If you don't know Flickr, it is free for the first 200 images, and is a great way to share photos and connect with other people.

Wednesday 4 January 2012

Stars

I have taken part in a few collaberative installations before, where artists from all over the world create small pieces which are pooled together to create one large art piece, and after reading Estella's story I felt I would like to do something similar for the hospice where she stayed. I am delighted that Estella's parents and Blubell Wood Hospice have agreed to this and I hope to have lots of support for the creative community of Britain and beyond.

I would like you to make a star each, in your own prefered media, which will be displayed as part of a group installation at Blubell Wood. Stars should be between 5cm and 15cm across and suitable to be displayed on a wall. Obviously stars will need to be child friendly, both visually and as I am hoping to create a piece than can act as sensory stimulation for the children at the hospice, the pieces will also need to be safe for small fingers...non toxic, no sharp edges, beads and buttons securely sewn or glued. Please, no advertising on the star itself, I will upload photos of any stars I recieve on this blog with a link to your shop/blog/etc. No images or text that may be subject to copywrite. And lastly, this is to be a celabration of Estella and all the children that use the hospice, so Bluebell Wood have requested that the wall should be positive and cheerful, only one star will have Estella's name as they can't do the same for every child, but there will also be an artist's statement explaining our inspiration.

I would love to hear from anyone interested in joining me in this project. Let's make a lasting memorial for Estella, a great art piece for the hospice, and while we're at it, let's bring people's attention to the smash SMA campain! If you can, and you haven't already done so, please sign this e-petition calling for free SMA screening tests.

If you are a member of Flickr, please join my group and add any work in progress photos of any stars you make http://www.flickr.com/groups/estellaswall/