365. A Star Concert

I had spent a lot of time contemplating possible projects for the very last star. Somehow, nothing would seem right and I had some serious doubst wether I would find the time and energy to make something big. All worries ceased, however, when a very unexpected solution presented itself about two weeks ago...

This is not a star I made myself.

This is a star which is just happening on ist own.

This is a star I actually paid for.

This is a star I travelled over 200 km to see - and hear.

This is a man who was made a 'star' by millions of people around the world.

This is my reward:

It was already in the process of buying my ticket that I realised the day Leonard Cohen played in Berlin would be the final day of my year of stars. I had at some point long ago decided that should I - during this year of stars - go to a concert of a 'star' of some kind, I will let it count as that day's project. So, all of a sudden, I was presented with my final star - and I consider this one a very worthy ending.

363. Funky Purple Travel Star

Okay... this project is really coming to a close quite soon...

I've been thinking a lot about this, lately. What's certain is that I'm not going to continue with daily stars, neither am I going to jump right into the next project. I honestly need a break.

But I had an idea how I might take something with me into the "life after 365"...

I painted a little wooden star I had still lying around, and will now carry it around with me and take some pictures of it in special (or very ordinary, everyday) places whenever I feel like it. Also, it's particularly great to make one right now as I'm just about to leave for Ireland and two weeks of - possibly - traveling around... (And I'm not one for garden gnomes, really) So, lots to see for this little star:

It's about the size of a €2 coin and thus not ideal for taking pictures in front of famous large landmarks or the likes, but it'll do somehow. At least it's easy to take around and needs no careful packing. :)

355. Stone Strokes Star

I had big plans for this star, but non of them worked. What remains are two little stones I had wanted to use - and to just draw with one on the other:

349. Remade Fruit Gum Star

Yesterday, my friend gave me this absolutely smashing examplar of fruit gum:

I really wanted to somehow incorporate it in a project, the only problem was: it was already a star...

So, today, I dissembled it and then reassembled it to make a different star:

346. Irish Star

Well, the time has come: I will finally go to Ireland! It's been a long, long time I've wanted to do this - and it's been a long, long decision-making process... until yesterday. Now, I'm over the moon! :D

Since I realised my year of stars will be over just before I leave for this fantastic island, I had to insert a little Irish star in advance:

345. Kunitzer Eierkuchen Star

I missed another day, so I used a star from today as I made several:

Once a year, the little village nearby (which is actually part of the town but every now and then they feel quite independent...) holds a little 'pancake festival'. The women there have a very traditional and very secret way of preparing pancakes, and on this one particular day they will stand in a screened kitchen area outside (so no one may spy on their secret methods) and bake hundreds and hundreds of those for visitors. You order your pancake, you get a number, and you wait for about 2 hours... It's madness really! But they are special, no doubt. They don't look like your ordinary pancake at all, and apparently they are deep-fried... But the insides taste like pancake - with lots and lots of eggs. :D

 There's no way anyone will ever tell me how they are made. But maybe, one day, I'll find a way to recreate them...

343. Star Dominoes

Every now and then, when I go shopping, they hand out these useless little collectibles at the counter - mostly stickers of some sports team or other. Last time, though, it wasn't stickers but dominoes... Oh well. I mean, really? At least those stickers can go flat into the little albums that come with them, but dominoes? They may be said to be more useful than stickers, but aren't they actually even less useful than stickers until you've got at least half a game complete? Okay, I'm not going to go any deeper - this is a whole new field of philosphy for me and I feel like walking on thin ice here...

Anyway, I eventually put them to some use and scraped off the original design to redecorate them with stars:

342. Triple-Brocken Star

Today was the first time I've been to the 'Brocken' - the highest peak in Northern Germany and according to many legends the place where the witches use(d) to meet on Walpurgis Night.

My friends and I spent quite some time philosophising about the name ('Brocken' in modern German could be translated as 'boulder') and eventually found our own explanation as we were climbing over hundreds and hundreds of large boulders: the hill's entire surface seemed to consist of 'Brocken', so why not just call the whole thing exactly that? I was quite intrigued by the idea of honouring our ascent by making a star out of tiny 'Brocken' lying on a larger 'Brocken' on The 'Brocken'...

Of course, the real origin of the name - while still being uncertain - has absolutely nothing to do with all those boulders lying around...

340. Scarlet Starlet

Backdated for order's sake: I missed one, so I had to catch up on it after having returned from another road trip.

This one is a tribute to the 'Perseids', a meteor shower which had its peak around this weekend and gave some friends and me a wonderful opportunity to sit by a fire, staring at the night sky and watching shooting stars.

The moment I had it assembled, the 'Scarlet starlet'-line of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'Otherside' got stuck in my head and I couldn't resist: hence the title... ;D

337. Almond-Milk-Pudding Star

Finally, this is the actual star for today:

Yes, I know, it looks somewhat disgusting... But don't judge a star by its... well... consistency. It was my first shot at almond milk pudding and it tasted rather delicious. Plus, it's very easy to eat with just one side of the mouth. I'll try to work on the appearance next time.

335. Star Flags Star

This is one of those ideas I've head very early but never found the patience to work on. Now, that I'm somewhat confined to my couch for a day with a swollen and aching jaw (wisdom teeths removed...) I finally finished collecting all the national flags that contain a star and assembled them into one huge star:

Notes:

1. I chose a five-pointed star because that is by far the most frequent depicted in all these flags.

2. It's not really visible anymore, but the template in the background was a star-shaped map of the world (similar to this one).

3. They are a total of 69 flags and are of all the countries recognised as independent by the UN / recognised as independent by at leas one member of the UN:

1.      Abkhazia

2.      Algeria

3.      Angola

4.      Australia

5.      Azerbaijan

6.      Bosnia and Herzegovina

7.      Brazil

8.      Burkina Faso

9.      Burundi

10.  Cameroon

11.  Cape Verde

12.  Central African Republic

13.  Chile

14.  Comoros

15.  Cook Islands

16.  Cuba

17.  Democratic Republic of the Congo

18.  Djibouti

19.  Dominica

20.  East Timor

21.  Ethiopia

22.  Federal States of Micronesia

23.  Ghana

24.  Grenada

25.  Guinea-Bissau

26.  Honduras

27.  Israel

28.  Jordan

29.  Kosovo

30.  Liberia

31.  Libya

32.  Malaysia

33.  Marshall Islands

34.  Mauritania

35.  Morocco

36.  Mozambique

37.  Myanmar

38.  Nauru

39.  Nepal

40.  New Zealand

41.  North Korea

42.  Pakistan

43.  Panama

44.  Papua New Guinea

45.  People’s Republic of China

46.  Philippines

47.  Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

48.  Saint Kitts and Nevis

49.  Samoa

50.  Sao Tome and Principe

51.  Senegal

52.  Singapore

53.  Solomon Islands

54.  Somalia

55.  South Sudan

56.  Suriname

57.  Syria

58.  Tajikistan

59.  Togo

60.  Tunisia

61.  Turkey

62.  Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

63.  Turkmenistan

64.  Tuvalu

65.  United States of America

66.  Uzbekistan

67.  Venezuela

68.  Vietnam

69.  Zimbabwe

I also found explanations of the meaning for most of the stars. I may add them to the list at some point...

4. I left out all those flags that show a sun (without an acutal star) - they would be another 15.

334. Purple Starfish Bowl

The papier-mâché pieces have finally dried and today I turned one into a purple starfish:

333. Paper Cranes Star

I have absolutely no idea how many paper cranes I have made in my life so far - I may well be past the thousand… I use to make them out of every kind of paper I can get my hands on, whenever I'm just sitting around somewhere. They also tend to be left where I make them (lecture halls, dinner tables, anterooms, parties, …) They also decorate almost every present I'm giving to someone. All in all I assume that less of my cranes stay with me than don't. Still, I've got a box at home where I collected all those that would turn up in various corners of my room, handbags, pockets, pencil cases, and god knows where. I try to keep track of their number but it only ever works for so long. So, eventually I shall have to count them again - which I just did. These are 409 paper cranes:

… plus/minus two or three - I didn't double-check.

If you like paper cranes - or if you don't just yet but feel like you might - check out this beautiful project!

330. Cocktail Menu Star

I spent a night out with friends celebrating that the first of us had basically just finished university. Of course, there was some delicious food and drink involved.

Surprisingly, I don't think I ever used a menu to make a star before:

328. Gross Grey Papier-Mâché Star

Finally, my papier-mâché experiment! For weeks (if not months) I collected all the newpapers to get enough for some sculpturing - having no idea how much I actually needed and thus ending up with WAY(!!!) too much... But now it has fulfilled its purpose. (At least I hope so: I'll have to wait a few days for all the stuff to dry before I'll know how well this worked out...)

Among other things, I tried to make a star-shaped bowl (or at least a base for one):

I'll probably get back to it in a week or so.

327. Moneygami Star #4

Nope, I'm not ashamed of using the same technique yet again - I'm having too much fun with it.^^

This is one of the most beautiful moneygami stars I found:

 side 1

side 2

Well, there are other really beautiful designs using eight or even twelve notes, but I don't have that much money just lying around... I live in the wrong country for that kind of thing...

P.S.: I was lucky enough to find instructions for both stars on the same website:
Star 326
Star 327

325. Star-Making in Reverse

Sometimes in life I seem to be running against a wall and I try everything to get through but I can't. Today, I stopped the fruitless efforts and changed into reverse. So, here is the making of a star in reverse:

324. Little Green Paper Star

Yes, I have made these before. This is an emergency star, made last week and dedicated to 'CampusCouch':

313. Newspaper Star-Collage

Actually, I had wanted to make a papier-mâché star - one of the very old ideas. I had collected lot of newspapers over the past weeks for this purpose. But then it seemd so much effort... For now, I used some of the newspaper to just cut out some star shapes and rearrange them in a most simple collage:

312. Marbled Candle Stars

Today, two of my friends came by and we marbleised some candles. ('Some' here meaning 'rather a lot'.)

I put some star-shaped stickers on two of mine before dumping them into the coloured water:

The only two clear results.

 
Some of the stickers also looked quite interesting afterwards:

 

And - just because it looked so hilarious - this is how we dried the long, thin candles: