Stars are born ...
This past month I’ve been continually inspired by repeating patterns, geometry and once again, light!
It began in November with completion of my stellar construction for the wonderful team at Orb Hair at New Farm. I sculpted ‘parol’ (from the Phillipines) inspired stars using thin pine dowel, beautiful, light, translucent sumi-E calligraphy paper and silver nylon thread. I also incorporated delicate silver star tinsel and other accents using the same pine dowel but spray painted white and bound together in the shape of a star using jewellery wire. The resulting effect in Orb’s 5 windows has been very striking and festive!
Here is a visual diary of my process.
The initial pine dowel parol star structures constructed using jewellery wire and string.
Affixing the sumi-E paper. This translucent paper is beautiful in the light of the windows. The resulting pieces almost appear luminous.
Affixing the remaining pieces of sumi-E.
The stars are all covered here and ready for final detailing in my stitching with silver nylon thread.
I loved this process of stitching the sumi-E paper to the pine framework. It was very meditative. I used curved/hook needles to stitch the central portions of the stars.
I then completed the pine dowel pentagonal stars and spray-painted them white.
The final step was to transport (carefully as the paper is very very delicate) the stars to Orb, adorn them with the beautiful tinsel and then hang them sequentially in the windows. I am so so happy with them!