I have created a star.  I have imported a flower.  I wish to use the division tool to put the flower in the star.  When I do that, the flower lines become thicker by a lot and distorts the flower shape or disappears altogether.  Both are paths, not objects.  the status bar says 2 objects selected of type path in layer 1.  What am I doing wrong?

Please share your Inkscape svg file containing both objects, so we can better evaluate.

Try: duplicate Star and select with flower and go Path->Intersection. Note that one Path can just carry one style.

Here is my file per your request.  Thanks for helping.

Have you tried already what I suggested above?

Perhaps the best way for putting the flower in the star is to use a clip :

• Group the flower *
• Place star and flower where you want them to be.
• Clone the star **
• While pressing ctrl, click on the flower (this will select both the group-flower and the clone of star).
• Object > Clip > Set Clip (I guess : my interface is in french).

* by selecting the flower within its group, it will allow you to move the flower in the star, without modifying the clip. Of course your group can contain many flowers.

** with the clip, the clone of the star disappear, so its original remains in place. Futhermore : you can now modify the star with node tool, the clip will adapt to the changes.

Hope this helps.

I think division of theses complex flower shapes is awkward , while creating two objects, some important nodes are suppressed and you get issues. Intersection works fine, as described by polygon.

On the second image of your .docx, you did actually divide your star with your flower (the flower was above your star when you did set the division).

Polygon: When I use Intersection, my star disappears and all that is left is a piece of the flower and the flower is bolded.  I am trying to fill the star with flowers, so I need my star there.

David_CAU: Yes, I used division however, the flowers are now bolded.  Which is the problem.  see attached.  Thanks for the help.

Looks like your flowers now have a stroke width and a stroke fill.

Before division, your star is a path with no fill color and a stroke width of 0,160 in

Your bunch of flower has a an undefined stroke and fill color and a stroke width of 0,0104 in.

After division, check the stroke fill and stroke width of your divided bunch of flowers.

I don´t know what´s up with your Inkscape version or why i add a stroke to the result from the look. It´ll work as I described. One last from me on this:

I don´t know what´s up with your Inkscape version or why i add a stroke to the result from the look and why you think "Division" is the way to go. It´ll work as I described. One last from me on this:

Thank you for that video.  It helps.