3D Wooden Star Hanging Decoration

A simple, effective decoration. Perfect for a gift or just for yourself. Suitable for any level of woodworker

Safety Equipment
-spectacles
-gloves
Card
Pair of Compasses
Protractor
Rule
Sharp pencil or Fine line pen
Binder Clip
Scissors/Craft Knife
Wood, I used 5mm Ply
Drill
Drill bit
Band Saw or cutting material
Sand Paper/File
Rag
Teak Oil or Varnish

Take your pair of compasses and draw in a circle of around 60mm diameter. Now draw a line through the center point. Take your protractor and draw a 90° line from the center point and existing line. This will give you a cross as shown in the image.

Now from the one of the lines, measure 72° with your protractor. Carry on this step from the previously drawn line, until you have 5 lines drawn.

Now join each of the points up, as shown in the image. You will have a perfect star if drawn correctly.

Take your scissors or craft knife and cut out the star shape.

Find the center line of one of the points. To do this, line up your ruler with the center point and the middle of a point, then draw your line.

Take your material thickness and half it. For example, I used 5mm thick ply, so I ended up with 2.5mm. Now add your halved material thickness to either side of the center line. This will ensure the that the second piece will fit. See the Diagram.

Now cut out this marked area to get a result as shown.

Use a binder clip, or similar, to keep your template in place. Take a marking piece and trace around the template. For one 3D star, you must have 2 stars traced (see image 1).
I was making 2 stars so I traced the template 4 times.

Ensure that you are familiar with the tool and your safety when you are carrying out this step. I used a band saw and wore protective specs and cut resistant gloves.

Take your sand paper or file and smooth down rough edges on the cut out shapes.

Take one of your cut outs (one per 3D star) and drill out a small hole, enough for twine to fit through. Make sure you drill out the hole opposite to the notch, see image.

Slot the two pieces together. The notches should align and the fit should be snug, if cut correctly.

Take your long length of twine and thread it through the drilled hole, do not tie it close to the star, tie it loosely at the end of the twine.

Hang the stars somewhere easily accessible, a Land Rover chassis for me, this is why we left the twine so long. Use teak oil or varnish to cover the star to protect it and give it a deeper colour. The second image shows the stars wet with oil.

I added 3 coats of teak oil to my stars to get my desired depth. The number of coats is dependent on the desired colour.