Pine Cone and Twig Xmas Tree Topper

I got a call in mid July during a heat wave from my good friend Audrey to create a rustic tree topper of all organic materials. One gets used to the Christmas-in-July theme if you have been in the business for as long as I have. I ran to my usual sources, one being Michael's where I was told that the good pine cones will be in next week, don't have any now. Some were found in the clearance section, on sale from the previous fall and luckily I had a personal stash of them lying around. I bought 3 large bundles of twigs and twine and went to work designing. I spent many labor intensive hours picking through and cutting down the twigs to the same size and then arranging them into a star shape. I sketched it out on a piece of newspaper to use as a guide and as each twig was put down I tied each of the 5 points with raffia. While heating up the mini glue gun I arranged the various sizes of pine cones into the center of the star. I placed a dab of hot glue at every contact point possible to hold them securely down. On the final day, I went into the 28th St. flower market to finish my star off with pine tree branches and hand delivered it to it's new owner. It took two weeks of a little work each day and I got used to seeing it up on my wall as it evolved. I really miss it. Here's the photo.