When I was younger, I had a book on constellations. It wasn’t very long or detailed, definitely a children’s book to discovering the sky, but my sister and I used to pour over it—mapping out star patterns during the day, standing outside in the summer amidst the fireflies at night.
I love stars. I love the way they look, I love what they are, I love what they have represented for years and what they continue to represent today.
If I could, I would map the constellations onto the ceiling of my dorm room in glow in the dark paint, just like those plastic stars I used to stick on the walls as a child.
I needed a way to bring the stars into my room at night, so I made one.
“We’re made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”
The Project: Constellation Lights
The Materials: Cans. Hammer. Water. Freezer. Nails.
The Steps: My mom did me a huge favor while I was home last weekend, and cleaned out three metal cans for my project this week. Thanks, mom!
When I got back to my dorm on Sunday night, I filled these cans with water and froze them in the freezer. My mom told me that this would prevent the cans from bending while I was trying to hammer holes into them.
While they were freezing, I designed my patterns. I found an awesome picture online of all the astrological star signs and decided to use that as the pattern on one of my cans.
I cut out each constellation and taped it onto the side of my can. I then took my hammer and nails— Thanks, Dad! —and put holes everywhere on the can that a star would be.
In between hammering each constellation, I had to put the cans back into the freezer, sometimes adding more water if a chunk of ice fell out.
The cans weren’t finished defrosting by the time I made this post, but I’m hoping to be able to post a picture of them soon.
I’ll add a candle to the inside and have constellation shadows all over my walls.