paper stars - stellated happiness [pix] TRY#2 -updates p.9, 11, 17, 18; tut p.15

[SuperStinger]

Hi, this is my first post, yay
So I make these paper stars a lot, and its been eating up my life for a while now. Like these:

There are a bunch more here: http://www.waxor.com/~child/starpage/

It started with pdfs of blank star shapes from here: http://www.korthalsaltes.com/index.html
that site seems to be down lately; the ones I've saved are reposted here: http://www.waxor.com/~child/pdfs
then I started adding on extra points and drawing on the patterns and coloring with pencils and hanging beads and now, to quote KMFDM, "i'm out of control - and i love it!"
This shit is so fun and so cheap. Printer paper, the regular kind. Elmers glue. colored pencils. fucking toothpicks. Used to draw a few cells in and kinda makeshift light-table it onto the rest, now my dad has a fancy printer with a scanner so I go there and photoshop to rotate them into positions. Superexcited for my works in progress, which include an all-photoshop star (my first!) and another excessively embellished with the 1 pixel pencil tool. Many stars didn't get a clear enough picture the first time I borrowed the camera, and more designs have been completed since I took these, so I'll hopefully post another batch soon whether y'all reply or not   Then the patterns are scored for the easy folding, cut, folded, glued, and hung from the pipes on the ceiling. When we ran out of room on those we started stringing a net across the room. So far my buddy counted like 80 or 90 I think, but I want to completely fill my apartment with them. One website on the topic likened paper polyhedra models to tribbles, and I've come to see the wisdom in that.

Folks have been telling me to start making these to sell, and my mom made fun of me for not thinking to do that, so now I'm considering it. It takes a while to color them in, so I think to make it worthwhile I'd need to charge more than anyone would want to pay for something made of paper. On the other hand, laser printed colored patterns would take lots of that time out of the making-it part, but I assume 5 inch paper baubles not even hand-colored would be worth next to nothing. But if anyone has thoughts on where and for how much to try to sell these, please please tell me. I don't even know how to start to think about that kind of thing.

But I'm thinking, EVERYONE SHOULD MAKE STARS!!! They are fun to make. They are stupidly easy to make, but the more you're into it, the cooler shit you'll think up to do. So it like stretches, its not any little bit hard to start and there doesnt seem to be a limit to how far you can take them. And its super cheap. and its fun. My motives for trying to spread this infection: it took me way too long from when I started just spray painting them till I started making my own patterns, and there've been a few helpful epiphanies spread out over the whole timeline. But, if other people start, and have their own different epiphanies, and then we can all "steal" each others' cool ideas, which could speed up our own new ideas, which can then be shared to speed up other new ideas, etc.. and soon the stars will be AWESOME. For example, I've been mulling over ideas about how to safely light them up as lamps. So far, nothing for sure. Maybe someone knowing more about lightbulbs would solve this problem. Thinking about non-paper materials too, but there's a problem with setting the angles just right - the nice thing about the paper is that when its all finally put together, the angles sort themselves out on their own. But the point is, everyone should be making stars. The meme needs to spread.

And for my first post here, this is getting awfully long, so I go now. Thanks for looking!

[poppysmum]

OHHHHH! They are sooooo purdy... I love things made of paper & I can definitely appreciate the time taken to construct & colour these babies. So for me, cost probably wouldn't be a problem if I absolutely feel head over heels for one. Then again I am soooooo poor right now...

Anyhoo, have you thought about making kits? You could sell them based on the time they took to design & wether or not you included the paper & pencils etc.

Nice first post, you should stick around!

[Natural Starlet]

I had to make one of those when I was in highshool and I sparypainted it, I must say that it wasn't nearly as lovely asd any of yours.  All of the different papers that you use are gorgeous!

[BeaG]

Welcome!
I love your stars!
Gr,
BeaG

[radal16]

Wow, those are so beautiful, if they're that easy to make they sure don't look it!  Not sure where and for how much to sell them- look for a booth at a little craft fair to start?

[amaryllisroze]

These are really sublime

[SonjaBoo]

SuperStinger, your stars are amazing.  I really really really love them. 

I did a quick googling for paper stars like yours, and the closest that I could find was in this ebay shop: http://stores.ebay.ca/Bombay-Marketplace/Star-Lights.html

Their lanterns are mass produced however, and because of that, they are only about $16-$20.  So consider that a paper star, not individually hand colored, made for peanuts overseas is $16-- you should be asking decent money for these.  Again, there is the question of how much someone will pay for something made from paper-- but honestly, if it's in the right market, you will sell them.  Yours are really well done.

My advice since they are cheap to make (maybe you spend $2 to make one?) is to base your pricing on the time you spend working on it.  Pay yourself by the hour.  Say you take 5 hours to make one and pay yourself $10 an hour-- $50.  That's a $48 profit after your materials, and personally, I think they are totally worth $50.  I think that your best markets would be either to set up an online store or find some boutiques that would sell them on consignment for you.  (like local artisan shops, etc.  Maybe Magpie!  )  Maybe do some googling on shops in big cities-- your stars would totally appeal to the urban decorating market.

Whew!  That was way longer than I intended!  Anyway, maybe there are some ideas to work with-- your stars are beautiful!  Best of luck in your business ventures! 

[SuperStinger]

Thank you!!

[InvisibleCastle]

Welcome to Craftster!

Those stars are absolutely amazing! You should sell them...though I've no idea where...sorry...

But those are really cool!

[McJulie-O]

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I love the intricacy!