Handcrafting of Moravian stars has been a part of Raleigh Moravian Church for over 25 years. The first paper Moravian stars made at RMC were constructed by Ed Mickey, who was the third pastor of our church, serving from 1965 to 1972. In 1966, he built a large (approximately 3 feet in diameter), illuminated paper star to decorate our sanctuary during Advent, and smaller (approximately 4-inch diameter) stars that were lighted by individual Christmas tree bulbs. These smaller stars were placed in the church's windows for Candle Tea and remained through Christmas week. It is still the tradition at RMC to decorate each of our windows facing the street with a wreath and a small star lighted from within from the first Saturday in December (the date for our Candle Tea) through the week of Christmas.

Also during the 1960's, a pair of students at North Carolina State University, Richard Henderson and Peter Blum, made a pair of tiny (about 1 1/2 inch in diameter) illuminated stars to use in our Christmas Putz. One of these stars is still in use today.

Pastor Mickey, who was later made a bishop of the Moravian church, used a traditional approach to making stars that involved a pair of large wooden forms in the shape of a square pyramid and a triangular pyramid to form the shape of the star points. He taught several members of the church how to make stars by his method, including Mae Marshall and Ty Marshall.

When the large star made by Ed Mickey began to show signs of age and multiple cycles of assembly and disassembly in the mid 1970's, Ed Manning decided to figure out how the star was constructed and craft a replacement. Ed also made his own set of the square and triangular wooden forms to use in folding the large paper triangles into the points for the star. When our new sanctuary was built in the 1980's, Ed built a second large star. One star hangs in the sanctuary throughout Advent each year and casts its shadow on the cross that hangs behind the altar The second star decorates our Fellowship Hall, which was the original sanctuary in the early days of Raleigh Moravian. The Fellowship Hall is the site of our annual Candle Tea held the first Saturday in December. Ed continues to maintain our two large stars, but he also began to share his techniques with others at a demonstration table during Candle Tea in 1977.

Another member of our congregation, Fred Mock, learned to make stars as a young man growing up near Winston-Salem, NC. He has joined Ed Manning at the star-making table most years. Together Ed and Fred offered the first star-making class at RMC in the early 1990's. Several people attended, including Emily Price, who was then 8 years old. Emily had actually wanted to learn a different technique for making the small, folded, Swedish stars, but she continued with the class. In fact, Ed remembers her as being the first person in that class to successfully complete a star. Others who learned to make stars at those first classes or shortly afterward included Benny Hoots, Joey Transou, and William O'Brien. A few years later Sandy Garner also became involved in star-making through conversations with Ed Manning and Fred Mock at Candle Tea. We continue to add new star-makers as Benny Hoots and Sandy Garner offered a star-making classes in 1996 and 1997.

Our star-making activities began to enter new areas in 1995 when Benny Hoots, Joey Transou, and Sandy Garner agreed to replace the 15 4-inch stars for the window displays. The old stars were yellowed from age and exposure to the heat of the lights, and many were falling apart from years of handling. We made a total of 20 stars to replace the old set and to provide a few in reserve. The enthusiasm carried over to our time together at Candle Tea that December, where we began to talk about two projects that might contribute to the church. One was the idea of producing a set of directions to making Moravian stars. The 4 hours that we spend at the star-making table during Candle Tea involves talking to several hundred people who make their way past our table while we demonstrate techniques in making the points and putting together stars. One question that many of our visitors have is, "Can you tell me how to make those?" Since it usually takes us about 2 hours or longer to make a single star, it really isn't practical for those visitors to stand around and watch us all the way through the process, even if we had time to complete one star with the need to keep up a steady conversation with everyone passing by. So, out of all of those questions came the germ of an idea that we might put down some basic techniques on paper with drawings to help others follow what we were doing, maybe 2 or 3 pages. This eventually grew into a 54 page, spiral-bound book with many illustrations of star-making techniques called Moravian Stars: A Guide to Their Construction (Star-Making Guide).

The second project that grew out of our afternoon together at the star-making table was the idea of using the stars as a fund raising technique. We had been making plans for several years to add to our Christian education wing because of the growth in the number and size of our Sunday School classes and the need for more classrooms for all ages. In 1995 we were already raising money through pledges to the Building Fund, and we were looking for new ways to contribute. Early in 1996, Benny, Joey, and Sandy agreed to make a number of stars (the original goal was about 35 stars in various sizes) that would go to members agreeing to make additional contributions to the Building Fund. The enthusiasm generated by all of these discussions related to star-making had also led to a little good-natured one-upmanship. We had always thought of the 4-inch stars as being extremely small, and none of us had attempted to reproduce the tiny stars that decorated our putz (1 1/2 inches in diameter), but we began to overcome that reluctance in early 1996. Once Benny Hoots produced the first 3-inch star in February of that year, we began to work our way to smaller and smaller stars. A 2-inch and 1 1/2-star quickly followed the 3-inch size. Eventually Sandy got down to stars that were 1 inch in diameter and a single attempt (reasonably successful) at a 1/2-inch star. (Photograph) In part because of the novelty of the smaller stars to our congregation, we were very successful in our efforts to raise money for the Building Fund. A total of about 75 stars ranging from 1 to 3 inches in diameter were eventually made and distributed to members of the congregation, and over $2500 was contributed to the Building Fund as a result.

We have continued to make additional stars and to contribute to the Building Fund or other worthwhile causes benefiting our congregation in future years.

Our star-making guide: Moravian Stars: A Guide to Their Construction

The idea of producing a book describing our techniques for making Moravian stars grew out of answering questions posed at our annual Candle Tea by visitors who enjoyed watching us demonstrate the star-making process. As the idea developed we also realized that it had the potential to be a fund raising project for the Men-of-the-Church to contribute toward the Building Fund for our new Christian Education Wing. The first version was about 2 1/2 typed pages describing the basic techniques. The second version was 15 pages long and included 15 line drawings of steps of the process of making the smaller stars. The final version that became the first edition of Moravian Stars: A Guide to Their Construction is 54 pages in length and contains sections on making both small and large stars, a brief history of our congregation and some of the customs that originated among Moravians. A total of 26 line drawings illustrating techniques in making Moravian stars are also included.

At the same time that the stars were being prepared for the Building fund campaign in 1996, we were continuing the work on what we usually refer to as the star-making guide. The final version of Moravian Stars: A Guide to Their Construction was completed and went to the printer in October of that year. We got back 500 copies of each of the 39 individual sheets (counting front and back covers, dividers for the various sections, and the illustrated text) in early November. To save money we had decided to collate and bind the books ourselves using a binding punch and plastic binding combs. Many evenings were spent with several people walking around a large table filled with stacks of the individual sheets collating each copy by hand while others punched the edges of the sheets and inserted the binding combs to finish the books.

Because of their contributions over many years to star-making at RMC, we had decided to dedicate the star-making guide to Ed Manning and Fred Mock. We managed to keep this a secret from them until the Sunday morning when we announced the completion of the guide to the congregation. Ed and Fred were called to the front and given the first two copies of the book, which had been personalized with their names and the title of "Master Star-Maker" on the front cover.

Sales of the star-making guide have been good with several hundred copies sold during the Christmas season of 1996 to members of our congregation, visitors to Candle Tea, and by mail orders that resulted from newspaper articles about our book. We have now gone into a second printing of 500 copies, and sales continue even during the summer months.

The star-making guide is a project that we hope to continue to make improvements on as we learn new techniques from our own trial-and-error or from star-makers who have different approaches from our own.

We wanted to create a description of the process of making Moravian stars that was based on the experience of the star-makers at Raleigh Moravian. These techniques were passed on to us by Ed Manning and Fred Mock, but many individual variations and shortcuts were incorporated from Benny Hoots, William O'Brien, Emily Price, and Joey Transou. One of the things that we tried to get across in the book was that making Moravian stars is not limited to a single, rigid set of steps that must be followed by everyone. However, we could not incorporate every variation that we were aware of without expanding the book beyond reason. Thus, the series of steps outlined in MS:AGTC represents a method that has been successful for most of us at Raleigh Moravian, but it does not cover all the possible, or even very many, variations in technique. If you make your own stars following the directions in our book, you will probably find several things that you would like to do differently. Try them, because you need to eventually find your own method that suits your way of doing things.

Moravian Stars: A Guide to Their Construction

In 1996 the group of star-makers at Raleigh Moravian put together a book with basic information on the methods that we use for making Moravian stars, both small and large. The first printing was received in November of that year, and we have been very pleased with the response from those interested in this subject. A second printing has been completed in 1998, and we continue to offer copies for sale through sales outlets with interest in Moravian subjects and through the Internet.

Moravian Stars: A Guide to Their Construction includes a section on the history of the Moravian church, some of the customs that originated among Moravians in Europe or America and have been adopted by other Christian churches, and a history of the Moravian star. The major part of the book is divided into 3 sections describing our technique for making small stars, larger stars using a modular design, and a method for designing stars of any size. In addition, there is information of illuminating stars. Patterns are included for stars approximately 3 inches, 4 inches, 8 inches, and 15 inches in diameter.

Our technique for constructing 26-point and other types of Moravian stars consists of a 5-step process. The pattern for the points (18 4-sided and 8 3-sided points for a 26-point star, for example) is printed or copied onto a suitable paper. Depending on the size of the star to be made, an 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheet of paper may have room for point patterns for many stars, for 1 complete star, or for only half or less of the point patterns needed for a single star.

The 5 steps that we follow in making a star are:

1. Scoring the pattern
2. Cutting out the points
3. Folding the points
4. Gluing the points
5. Assembling the star

As you can see from the list above, there are 4 steps to be completed before you can complete the assembly of a star. If you make a complete set of 26 points before doing any of the assembling, you can expect to spend about two to three hours getting ready to finish a star. For this and other reasons, the first three words in Moravian Stars: A Guide to Their Construction are "PATIENCE, PATIENCE, PATIENCE." Making Moravian stars requires a certain amount of manual dexterity, but most people probably can manage the manipulations that are required. What separates the person who makes their own stars from many of those who would like to but never get around to it, is having the patience to spend several hours on the preliminary steps required to make a star.