pink twinkle stars: a custom plush request

Hot pink, super gleeful star plush. Twinkles required.

pink twinkle stars, all lined up

It all started when I got an email from Noah, my photography-class-friend from school. He had graduated and was working for Intertwinkles, a small company in Boston that develops web tools and apps to help organize businesses and organizations. They were looking for a creative and fun way to reward their beta testers, and the idea of custom plush came up. Of course, Noah knew just the person to ask! (me!)

pink twinkle stars: sketch vs. execution

(click for larger image)

So I emailed back and forth with Noah and his boss as we decided how the plush should look. Stars. Magenta: a must. And yes, they must have arms that can twinkle.

I was given the above sketch as a rough approximation. We thought about using pom poms for his twinkly sparklers, but we settled on tassels as the more elegant option. It’s hard to make pom poms not look childish. I also adjusted the eye shape slightly – partly as a nod to the word “twinkle”, and partly to avoid looking like a Mario star. I think that extra detail made a big difference in the final appearance of the plush.

The mouths are triple-stitched black thread. They’re a little bit shadowed in these images, but in real life they’re perfectly visible, and perfectly happy.
In regards to “twinkling”, I was especially pleased with how the tassled arms performed. The day before I shipped them out, I reread the email chain to make sure I hadn’t missed any crucial details, and saw this:
“I’m imagining interactions where someone holding the star might waggle the star-arms back in forth in faux-twinkle motion.”
I had been running around the house doing just that the day before, so I was thrilled. They were going to love these.

pink twinkle star with custom label

I made custom “intertwinkles” labels for the back of each star as an extra touch.

I ended up making ten of these guys. Once I had solidified my design and was happy with my second prototype, I was able to work assembly-line style – but still, making ten of something is a lot, especially on my own! And since each star has five points, I ended up stuffing 50 pointy arms! Stuffing was certainly the largest time investment.

All that being said, I’d do it again. I’d do more! I love making custom plush. And I love being able to take pictures of armfuls and boxfuls of plush I’ve created!

pink twinkle stars bursting happily from their box

Even if I have to mail them away in the end. A great project, and they were well received up in Boston. Such fun little twinkle stars.