Star Finial – Moravian Star

Moravian Star

Moravian Star - in progress

Moravian Star Design 0701716 W1

This beautiful Moravian Star Weathervane was first commissioned in Nickle Silver, to be mounted on a third story cupola of a New England Victorian home that was under renovation. The customer also chose to gild their star in optional palladium leaf. The palladium gilding will remain bright for many decades, and as it begins to erode the cool color of the faintly tarnished nickel silver will prevail. An excellent choice for a piece this customer did not want to go through the darkening and patina process as copper would.

The precision involved in getting this right was just the kind of challenge our skilled team love to take on. Just the math could make some of us a little woozy. No matter how many points a star has, a Moravian star has a symmetrical shape, based on polyhedra. There are Moravian stars with 20, 26, 32, 50, 64 and 110 points that are commonly hand-made in the Moravian schools. The variety comes from the division of the bases of the points—using an octagonal face instead of a square face, etc.

The first Moravian Star is known to have occurred at a Moravian boarding school for boys in the mid 1800’s, as part of a geometry lesson. The name of the inspired instructor who took high math to a room full of squirmy boys as a crafting project has been lost to time, but the star has gone on to be an iconic and beautiful design used throughout the world and in some Christian faiths is hung particularly at Advent. Many Moravian churches and schools make the stars to sell, as part of their worship, for there is no distinction between the secular and the sacred, even in their daily activities. Everything is considered worship.