Lots of Stars!

The post has been busy lately! :) The first star is from June, the photo doesn't show how glittery and shiny the star is....bound to be a hit with small children :) June has a blog here.

 Also in the post were three more stars from Nicola. These pieces are really a labour of love as Nicola finds it difficult to grip a needle, although you can't tell from these stars!

 And last but not least, these cheerful stars arrived from Jodie today :) Jodie has a SMA Awareness blog here.

And as always, I'm working on some more stars :) These ones are a little smaller with the impressions of daisy centres....

Things are starting to get busy!

Lots of people showing me stars they've made on twitter at the moment! Really looking forward to showing them to you. I need to take a photo of all the stars I already have, so you can see how the wall is shaping up. Will see if I can manage that in daylight!

In the post this week form Nicola a really beautifully cross-stitched star....and she's made another two!

And out of the kiln this week...the three stars you've seen in progress.

I went for a simple transparent green glaze for the leaves, and I'm very pleased with the results.

I'll hopefully have some more stars to show you soon. I'm still thinking of more to put in the kiln, I think I might do some smaller ones and glaze them different colours.

Let me know if you're working on any stars, and feel free to blog about the project. The more the merrier!

More in the post :)

Another cute, soft star arrived in the post from iheartrosie This will be another great star that can be attatched with velcro :) Rosie also has an Etsy shop here Thank you Rosie!

I have been working on some new stars too, on the same principal as the leaves...this one with shells, a bit like limestone....

And this one with toy dinosaurs pressed into it :)

In print :)

The project is now in print in Popular Crafts magazine. I don't yet have a copy, but here is a link to the article on their website. Thanks Katharine!

Delia Stevens found a lovely handmade star in a shop....so in true Etsy style, I'm going to add some little bells for another sensory aspect.

 It's a little hard to see, but Delia also made this delicate wire star which I'll back with card :)

 Whilst at a craft shop today I bought this little paper mache star box....not sure what I'll do with it yet, but I have plenty of craft materials lying around to make two different wall stars.

Bright Star

A beautiful bright yellow crochet star arrived in the post from Ana. I'm hoping that this one, and other's like it can be attatched to the wall with velcro, so they can be taken to less mobile children in the hospice,so thanks Ana...it's perfect! See Ana's Etsy shop here.

I also have some more stars from my Mother-in-law, Delia, I'll try to get some photos tomorrow :)

In the post :)

The lovely Ruthie sent her stars from the USA :) A couple of the paper circles have broken off, but nothing a dab of glue won't sort! So thank you! :D

And here are some of the star pendants and brooches that have come out of the kiln... I'll send one to Ruthie as a thank you, and the next nine people to send in stars will also receive one. I would also like to sell these to raise money for the smashsma campaign. I'm going to make some thicker ones with smashsma round the edge, like the writing on the edge of a coin. Then hopefully they can be sold to raise money like the smashsma bracelets.

Simple Ideas

Nothing new about this method, but I thought I'd share it anyway, maybe it will inspire you to make your own star, maybe in clay or polymer clay?

I picked some leaves on my way back from dropping my son off at school. My daughter picked some too....but she didn't get many whole ones :) I had a juicy new bag of porcelain I bought the day before, so I rolled a small slab and laid on the leaves. You get the best impressions from the back of the leaves. I found the best impressions were from brambles, cotoneaster and hazel. I then pressed the leaves in by going over lightly with the rolling pin. You can press them in with your fingers for a more undulating look. I picked out the leaves and cut the star with a cookie cutter.

I'm not sure if I will glaze the piece or maybe I will paint on underglaze and then wipe away the excess to accentuate the texture. This method works well with polymer clay and acrylic paint. Choose contrasting colours for the most striking effect.

Let me know if you're making one for Estella's Wall...it will be lovely to see your results!