Galaxy Star Dishes

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Create your own dreamy dishes to hold rings, office supplies, and other trinkets

I recently went to a good friend’s wedding that was so beautiful, I was totally inspired. They’re both aerospace engineers who work for a company that builds rocket ships, so there was a lot of space themed things going on. The tables were each named after constellations and the place markers were little star cookie cutters. I decided to make use of those cookie cutters and create these space themed jewelry dishes.

I love how these dishes turned out. Make a few as a gift to let someone know you love them to the moon and back!

What You Need:

Air Dry Clay
Star Shaped Cookie Cutters
Acrylic Paint in varied shades of purple and blue and gold
A bowl with a bottom slightly smaller than your stars
Dauber or a small piece of sponge
Thick bristled paint brush or old toothbrush
Hot Glue
Sandpaper

How to Make Them:

Roll out a piece of clay about the thickness of a piece of cardboard and cut out your stars with the cookie cutters.

Line your bowls with plastic and place your star inside so the legs curl up a little against the side of the bowl. Let dry completely. Once the top is dry, you can take the star out and flip it upside down to let the bottom dry.

Optional: While the star is drying, roll out a log that’s about 1/4 inch in diameter as evenly as possible. This will become little feet for underneath your dishes.

Measure about 1/4 inch and cut little circles.

Once you have 3 for every star, line them up and set something long and flat like a ruler on top of them. Gently and evenly press down so they will all be the same height. Let dry.

When your dishes are dry, Sand the edges of the stars to make them nice and smooth.

Now it’s time to paint your galaxy. Line up 3 – 5 paint colors in varying shades of blue, from a fuschia purple to navy. You could also go from teal to navy, or possibly even teal, purple and navy. It’s kind of up to you on how you want your galaxy to look, but here are the colors I used.

Start with your lightest color and dab a line or circle through the center of your star. Dab off excess paint, but do not clean with water.

Go to your next color and surround the lighter one. You want to blend the two colors together.

Repeat the same way with your next color. Make sure to keep blending.

Dab all unpainted areas with your darkest color. Don’t worry if there are white spots, you’re going to be making one more pass. Repeat this process, but go from darkest to light and outside in. Keep blending and adding more colors as you see fit. Let dry.

Now take your gold paint and dip your thick bristled paint brush or tooth brush into it. Make sure your dishes are on a protected surface. Pull back the bristles with paint on them with your thumb and flick the paint onto the dishes. Repeat as much as you like for a starrier look.

Once you’ve got your starry flecks, you might like some more pronounced stars. Dip the end of a paintbrush or skewer into the gold paint and dab on little circles. You can even make some constellations if you like. Let dry. Once the top is dry, paint the underside of the dishes in your darkest color and let dry.