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.

Monday 28 May 2012

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.

Sunday 27 May 2012

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 :)

Sunday 20 May 2012

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.

Thursday 17 May 2012

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!

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Inspiration

I have some new star cutters :) I love that when I buy a new tool, it fires off a load of new ideas in my head! So.....definitely some new stars on the way from this end...how's everyone else going? I've had some more interest and promises via twitter, but I still don't have any stars....if anyone had any photos of pieces they are working on, I'd love to see them and post them on the blog :)