This course was presented by Gary Purrington and Noye Balmer at the Western Pyrotechnic Association 2000 Winterblast in Lake Havasu Arizona on February 18 & 19, 2000. This hands on lecture demonstrated how improved color stars could be made, cured and primed ready for use in a few hours thus eliminating the need to transport hazardous 1.3 explosives to the site. Aerial shells can be made start to finish from scratch on location! Composite stars offer higher resistance to moisture and aging, they produce higher candlepower and longer burn times than conventional stars thus allowing the use of smaller stars and higher counts per shell and the flame coloration is the purest most vivid colors ever seen in pyrotechnics – truly unbeatable. The article includes safety, materials, mixing, cutting (sizing), priming and heat curing (we used a 55 gallon drum with a 1500 watt ceramic heater mounted outside forcing heated air through trays of stars within). Also included are formulations for red, gold, purple, blue, flitter stars, comets and prime compositions. All this information and more is packed into four pages 8 ½" X 11".