A stylish Christmas Star from John Kostick

John Kostick stars

If-like me-you buy one or two investment Christmas baubles for your tree every year, a small consolation of ageing is that by the time your kids become teenagers you find you’ve accumulated an impressive (if slightly eclectic)  collection, to the extent that our tree often looks like the douglas fir version of Elizabeth Taylor – using fake jewels, so perhaps more Glam-Bet-Lynch-after-a-couple-of-vodkas. I am deluded enough to think that teensons might reminisce over the heirloom collection when I’m gone, admiring my taste and holding the twinkling glass and embroidered textiles up in the festive light and smiling. Chances are of course, they will all become minimalists and have avant garde trees made from aluminium and chuck my collection in the bin at the first opportunity.

This year I fell for these beautifully elegant collapsable stars from American artisan (and some time mathematician) John Kostick. Wonderfully made from sold bronze, they would make lovely desk or mantlepiece ornaments and are captivating to collapse because they are so perfectly balanced. They twirl very elegantly if you suspend them on a length of fishing wire and I am fast becoming obsessed with mine. They would make very good presents for those with an engineering bent.

I found them at Choosing Keeping, the new stationery store on Columbia Road run by the charming Julia, she has a new batch of them coming in from John’s studio soon so contact her via the Choosing Keeping website or visit the store if you are interested. The large one is £50, the small one £20, more than I’d normally pay, but I’m still building the heirloom collection……. For more on John Kostick, see his website

John Kostick stars collapsed

2 Comments

  • Jane Kostick says:

    Thanks for the nice blog post. A minor correction is that the stars are not brass, which is an alloy of copper and zinc. Rather, they are bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. We also make them in silicon bronze, which is commonly used in cast bronze sculptures.

  • Amanda says:

    Hey thanks Jane! And lovely to have you reading us from across the globe, am correcting text now….A

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *