Several years ago at St. Mary Cathedral, Sr. Nancy came to choir and told us about St. Michael's Christmas worship space. My husband and I drove to St. Michael's in Oakley, Michigan. They had beautiful stars hanging from the ceiling. Right then I knew we had to find a way to do that the next year at the Cathedral.
I set about searching the internet. I found a site that explained how to cut several stars at once with a band-saw. This is not the same site but it does show how we cut so many stars. The one thing we did differently is drilling through to hold the plywood and the posterboard. We drilled right through the top part of the star, thereby creating a hole to hang the star.
Then we folded the stars - like this site shows - then we spray painted them gold and added gold glitter. We put up signs at the entrances to church that said, "The stars are coming, the stars are coming..." Then had a sign up sheet for people to come help tie the stars to fishing line.
On a Saturday in early December about 25 people helped tie the stars. There were 1,700 stars to attach! We carefully gathered the string and clipped them with a clothespin to keep them from getting tangled. Then when we decorated we crisscrossed the lines all over the church. It looked like we brought the heavens inside the Cathedral.
In the book, A Light Shines Forth, the stars have been used a few times and it is time to retire them. The sisters, Sarah and Julie, from Four Season Friends that are on the Art and Environment Committee ask to reuse them at the Homecoming dance.
I certainly hope you are looking forward to July 2015 when A Light Shines Forth is published.
