Sometimes a star becomes more than something I made in my shop. Sometimes it becomes part of someone else's story.
This particular 18-inch Stars & Stripes star has been doing just that for several years.
A friend of mine, Rhea, bought this star from me a several years ago. Since then, she has found a way to display it in more than 30 different settings over the years. Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, spring, Independence Day, fall football, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and winter. Season after season, she changes the setting around the same star and somehow makes it look like it belongs there.
That's what inspired the video that goes along with this post. It's fun to see one of my stars continually reinvented without ever changing the star itself.
But there is another reason this particular star is special to me.
Rhea is an Air Force veteran, and she was also a woodworker herself. In fact, woodworking was part of the story of how we first became acquainted.
The first time I met her, she was telling me about a friend of hers who had commissioned her to build his casket. He had specifically wanted her to use some walnut wood that he had obtained from his sister-in-law's property.
As I remember the story, the walnut had come from a tree that had fallen during the Columbus Day Storm in the early 1960s.
Something about the story sounded familiar to me, so I asked her who this gentleman was.
When she told me, I realized he was my grandmother's brother-in-law.
Talk about a small world.
And that wasn't even the only connection that brought us together.
I believe the original reason we met was because Rhea knew me through one of my sons. She had been a teacher's aide in his classroom years before. She was also acquainted with another woman who had the same last name as me. This other woman wanted to get together with me to talk about the Wiens family genealogy.
So, as these things sometimes happen, the three of us met for breakfast here in Dallas and spent some time talking about the Wiens family. I got to know Rhea and stayed in touch with her over the years. I eventually lost touch with the other woman with Wiens as her last name.
Pretty interesting way to meet somebody, isn't it?
Years later, one of the things connecting us is still something I made with my own hands.
That 18-inch Stars & Stripes star has now been photographed in more than 30 seasonal and holiday settings. It has become a little seasonal character of its own, showing up throughout the year and taking on a different personality each time.
And that's one of the things I love about making these stars.
I make the star, but I don't get to decide where its story ends.
Someone else takes it home. They find a place for it. They hang it, display it, decorate around it, give it as a gift, or maybe just enjoy seeing it every day.
And sometimes, years later, I get to see what became of it.
This one just happens to have been given a pretty remarkable life.
More than 30 settings. More than 30 little snapshots of the passing seasons. And behind all of them is a friend who is a veteran, a former woodworker, someone connected to my family history in a way neither of us expected, and someone who has given one of my stars a life far beyond anything I could have imagined when I built it.
That's the part of Star Guy Designs that I enjoy the most.
The stars are made of wood, paint and a little bit of work.
But the stories that grow around them?
Those are something else entirely.
If you'd like to see more of the stories behind my stars, my woodworking journey and the people and experiences that have helped shape Star Guy Designs, check out my website: