237. Zentangle Star

This star is a tribute to Yvonne and her "Freestyle Zentangles":

I had never heard of this form of art, before I stumbled across her blog - and now that I've tried it myself, I have fallen in love with it! It's like the ultimate doodling. Apparently, it was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas - based on what every second kid does at school. :)

236. Star Poetry

You are the farthest my eyes will ever see,

an anchor to them in the vastest, blackest sea.

What strengths you possess must truly be sublime,

that you should reach through all this space and time - 

smallest of lights that shine.

You are the oldest my eyes will ever see,

I am but a child and until my end will be.

Should ever I believe wisdom to exist,

it must be native to your cradling mists - 

the reason you persist?

You are the safest my soul will ever feel,

assurance that something much greater than me is real.

Never resting you race in burning flames,

and yet, for as long as I live you will remain - 

with ever changing names.

Is it dark where you are? Because all pictures

show you surrounded by night.

Yet, I have learned in one of life's lectures,

you are

the maker of light.

"The Maker of Light" - result from a sleepless night

235. Fury Star

Somtimes, life just sucks. Bad.

And how surprising: Not even the star worked out the way it was supposed to.

No way I can get these two halves (of a lantern I wanted to make) stick together.

But no way am I going to make any other proper star now. Grabbing a pen and slashing out at an old envelope was all I could do.

Then I let Photoshop do the rest:

I absolutely loathe this day.

234. Playing Cards Star-Ball Sculpture

I first discovered this on another 365-days-project blog. (He's making stars as well! :D) The original design and instructions are by George Hart. What can I say: I immediately fell in love with the idea and the design and had to try it myself.

It's a bit of a tricky one and when I held the first three cards (of twelve total) in my hands, I honestly thought it impossible. But eventually, it took only a little over an hour to make this:

If you ever want to feel really good: Try this - and don't give up! It feels fantastic when the final card slips into place! :D

Here's a shot of the interior I took before inserting the last three cards:

P.S.: 24 spikes.^^

233. Starry Turtle

One of the presents for a friend's birthday was a parasol for her balcony. My friends and I decorated it with turtles (her favourite animal), and I gave one of them some stars:

232. Paint Chips Star

Everytime I go to a hardware store I (try and remember to) take some paint chips with me to add to my collection of craft stuff. I went again today and -as I stood before the walls of paint- remembered that I had very early on in this project thought of making a star out of paint chips. So, here it is now:

They named the colours (starting with the bright green): apple, avocado, salbei, peppermint, plum, crocus, lavendel, aubergine, merlot - all in all a somewhat strange mixture of German and English as I just realised...

231.Soap-Carved Star(fish)

I discovered an unused piece of soap and decided I would dabble at soap carving a little:

Well, it's not exactly a breathtaking result, but I think it's recognisable. In my defense, I have to say that the soap was rather dry and crumbled easily, plus the piece was quite small:

230. Cork Stamp Star

Tidying up my art supply cupboard today, I found an old wine cork and decided I would use it to make a stamp:

They look a bit like they are dancing...

229. Couch Constellation

I have this very funny book about happiness or good fortune or luck (or any of the various translations there are for the German word "Glück"). On one page, there's a black sky with lots of stars and the reader is told to create their very own new constellation or even a new zodiac sign with associated characteristics etc.

Step 1: Randomly connect any stars. No need for a bad conscience: That's just how the "real" constellation were developed.

Step 2: Which traits and characteristics did you always want to have? Assign them to your new zodiac sign. There's nothing negative, endearing quirks at the most.

Step 3: From now on, you are under the influence and special protection of this completely individual cosmic constellation. Can you feel it yet? The stars never lie!

So, here's what I came up with today:

This is the "Couch Constellation". It can be best observed during late autumn and winter, but is also still visible throughout springtime lethargy and during close weather in summer. This constellation is associated with the ability to treasure a good long rest on a sofa, a cup of hot chocolate and good music. It's for daydreamers, wandering minds, creative thinkers, and people who need to recharge their batteries. Very popular among psychologists.

228. Space Traffic on Milky Way

Yay, today's project is somehwat insane! :D

Over the past three days I've been working on a very special kind of street... I wanted to make the milky way - out of actual milk.

Now, here it is:

See how the street sign can change its language:

Apparently, on the Milky Way they're driving on the right...

I was having a lot of fun folding all kinds of different paper spaceships. A mere few minutes before I was going to pour the milk, I suddenly thought that I simply had to add a little blue box here, somewhere - it's not very detailed but recognisable, I'm sure, especially since it is lopsided as ever. :D

Those spaceships did float rather well, except they kept drifting towards the edges, so on many pictures it looked like they were about to crash or - as in the first one - drift over into the oncoming lane...

Here's what the basic piece looked like before being flooded:

It's made of cardboard covered with tin foil. The sides are plain black paper with some stars painted on them. The centre line is made of a long straw painted black. The size of the whole thing is about 36 x 26 cm, so, actually quite small. All the more surprising how much milk fit in there: I didn't have enough and had to fill it up with water until it was more than half a litre.

This was great fun! (And a big mess in the end...) :D

227. Fig Star

Oh, well. This is the second of my emergency stars - made many months ago and kept for days like this when I simply can't get myself to do anything.

226. Playing Cards Star

Another long night with friends - the second half of it spent playing one of my favourite games: the werewolves - again.^^ I used the cards from our last round to make this star:

225. Kitchen Roll Star

I emptied my kitchen roll today, so that became my star:

224. Flip Book Star

Here's something I've been wanting to do for a long time but never really dared to start. In the end, it wasn't quite as difficult as I'd feared. :)

(Apologies for the bad video quality - this star was quite a challenge to film.)

223. Mess Around a Star

Again and again, I feel as if I'm fighting a mess, lately - inside and outside. So, for a change, I decided to make one: There's this wonderful book "Mess" by Keri Smith which I had neglected long enough. Here's a page I worked on today:

Note the imperfection of the shape - I feel rather good about it.
When I say 'imperfection'...
Someone once told me 'We are all perfect. We've got to be. Otherwise, we wouldn't exist.'
Those words keep coming back to me these days...

222. Metre Stick Star

Another simple one - or so I thought. It wasn't that easy to arrange the sides to equal spikes:

221. Snow Globe Star

Here's a snow globe that's not a globe:

I discovered it in a fantastic art supplies shop today and immediately set to work on decorating it (repeating the motive of the "Music Monday" two weeks ago because I liked it so much). I'll try and make a video of the stars flying around above the sea once the light's returned tomorrow morning...

Update: Not the best video ever, but one can see the stars falling:

220. Key Ring Star

After almost two month, I've got my old key ring back together. Somehow, it felt worth documenting even though its star character is somewhat disputable:

But it was defenitely a challenge to make all the keys stand on their edges!

219. One Cut Paper Star

Yesterday's star was a very simple but interesting little thing. It took no more than a folded paper and a single cut:

218. Cocktail Star

I'm home.

And one hour after I arrived, I went to meet some friends at a cocktail bar I'd never been to before. The straws had some rather annoying decoration, but fortunately someone had a role of tape and I could make it a bit less annoying:

217. Fimo Star Earrings

Today, I made those two little stars out of fimo, an oven-hardening modelling clay:

It was a lot of fun mixing the two colours by twisting them around each other, rolling them out again, twisting again, and eventually flattening them out in a spiral. They are the size of my thumbnail and shall become earrings, but since I haven't got any wire at the moment, that will have to wait.

216. Music Monday #8

My lovely friend Xin once suggested making music with water glasses as a part of this project. Here's my first try at it:

This is probably the easiest song ever to figure out. To all the German readers: This is NOT about Christmas... ;D

I'd love to try singing glasses at some point but we don't have enough stemware plus they crack so easily. But maybe I'll find a way sometime to try that, too.

215. Hidden Easter Star

Something else I hid in the garden for my Sis to find:

214. Boiled Easter Eggs Star

Yesterday, I boiled and coloured some eggs - which I hid for my sister in the garden today. Before that, I  used some to make this star:

213. Easter Egg Star

I'm really no hero when it comes to painting easter eggs - especially when I have something particular on mind like 'put a star on an egg'... But, anyway, here's one of this year's creations:

 bottom (star)

 top (sun=star)

sideview (strange lines)

I used acrylic lacquer to paint this year's eggs. It isn't the easiest option but makes for amazingly shiny colours. :)

212. Wrapped Laptop with Star

My mother and I have been working on a great project which also involves a star - somehow...

This used to be first my mum's and then my old laptop:

We glued wrapping paper all around it - and around every individual key! So much fun!
Eventually, I cut out a tiny silver star and found the perfect place for it:

It's where the key with the star sits - on German keyboards, mind you. :D

211. Corn-Cob-Holders Star

Tonight, we had corn cobs for dinner - and just how many holders do we have by now??

P.S.: Just a little reminder that the sun is actually a star..., ;)

210. Rolling Star

Yet another goodbye. There're too many of them, lately...

Good thing, though, I found a star here as well:

209. Music Monday #7

Yay, another Music Monday! I'm so glad I'm back at some place where I have lots of different materials at hand and can just start creating. :) So here is something I've had in mind for weeks now.

Not long ago I discovered a German song which carries stars in the title. This is how I picture it:

"Am Rande der Welt fällt Gold von den Sternen."

(At the edge of the world there's gold falling from the stars.)

Since it seems to be a rather unknown song, I'm going to give it away:

"Gold von den Sternen" (Gold from the Stars) from the musical "Mozart" - but the music of the song has nothing to with Mozart as far as I can tell...

I used soft pastels for the water, glued little golden stars to the sky and dripped a bit of golden glitter beneath some. The effect of the flash for the photo made it just what I had imagined it should look like! :)

208. Bubble Bath Star

My parents have a bathtub! While I'm staying at their house I had to take the opportunity for a long, relaxing bath - and for a bubble star:

207. Wax Dripping Star

Yesterday, at 8:30 in the evening, Earth Hour reached Germany and we switched off all the lights. My sister lit a large candle which inspired me to make a star of wax drippings: