Wednesday, September 28, 2016

One Million Stars to end Violence

Just found out about this international weaving project, thanks to Colleen Miller of Creative Collective, and tried my hand at it.  For a small craft form, quite addictive in nature, and if you want to join the cause, a worthy one, I present it here.




This is my first star, and I learned a thing or two in the process, not being the most adept at origami type of work, and getting easily confused by turns and sudden moves.  This ribbon is the kind that changes color as it moves, interesting in rl, more than in pix.

The tutorial I link is very good, very simple to follow, but since I can't move at her speed, I had to run it several times before I took off the training wheels.  

One thing to bear in mind is that you need to keep the length of the pieces proportionate to their width.  I tried with wide petersham ribbon, which did not work at all, needed pieces about twice the length shown in the video, otherwise you don't have enough to hold onto while you work.  

But ribbon the size she shows, parcel ribbon, the kind that folds and stays folded, works just fine.  And do listen to the advice about which bits to cut, otherwise you will happily cut off a point you just spent a while creating, ask me how I know this.

The, very good, tutorial on how to make these comparatively simple stars (if you look on youtube and see the amazing and much more complex ones, you'll see what I mean) is here

The project itself arose from hearing of a sudden violent death, which impelled the weaver, Maryann Talia Pau, to start a community project of teaching how to make One Million Stars to End Violence, as a gentle response, returning good for evil.

This has become a huge project, and if you want to be part of the international effort, beyond the pleasure of just making  few stars for your own fun, go here  

I plan to take my beginnings in to my stitch in this evening and see if I can do it without the tutorial entirely, not having the wifi signal where I will be.  Chances are some people there are already experts, though, knowing that many talented group. 

I can see using these for Christmas decorations, and inserting into seasonal mail, and maybe creating a wreath for the door, getting very ambitious here..or a mobile..

1 comment:

  1. sounds an interesting new project you have taken on here, will pass on this one as I do not have ribbon in my stash and am on a no buying plan at the moment have more than I can ever use in the house with fabrics, threads etc

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