Stars - Winter light

It is now winter and the days are short. Although many of us are divorced from the religious occasion of Christmas, I think many of us enjoy decorating our houses with light. When sunrise is at 8am and sunset before 4pm, then we all need as much light as possible.

With that in mind, I decided to find a way to make some driftwood stars. I combed the beach for sturdy lengths of driftwood, and then took them home and put them in piles of similar lengths. I wanted a 5-pointed star and aimed to use contrasting pieces of driftwood in terms of colour and texture.

Assembling them meant experimenting with how each piece could lie so that the end points could be glued or, occasionally, joined with a small nail or screw. I soon learnt that it is best to attach the brass-plated hook for hanging the star before assembling but this is a mistake I commonly make with any of my driftwood creations: being so excited to make something that I forget to anticipate the need for attachments.

Once the glue had set and the hook attached to the cross beam of the star, I looked online for a short string of lights to attach to the star. The best I found were on Lights4Fun: a set of 20 warm glow fairy lights on a pliable string and with replaceable batteries. The trick now was to string them around the star so as many of the lights were visible at the front and to try and hide the small battery compartment.

 

With some stars, I added a single shell to the centre or on one of the points of the stars to help join everything together or/and to hide the battery compartment. Finally, I sandpapered any blobs of glue or splinters of wood that stuck out.

Overall, I found making these relatively simple and I was pleased how they were all unique in size and appearance. They have made delightful gifts for family and friends and some are still available in my Etsy shop.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SeagiftCrafts?ref=shop_sugg