The Favorite of Native Arts And Crafts

Saturday, July 11th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

Being bothered by nightmares? Native Americans believe that bad dreams can become caught in the web of a dream catcher and destroyed in the morning light. Dream catchers are so beautiful and artistic that they have become one of the most popular mass marketed arts and crafts available. However, these lovely pieces can be made at home. In this article, we’ll demonstrate how to make a dream catcher yourself.

Dream catchers were originally made out of willow, sage and deer sinew. Modern dream catchers are made with wood or metal wrapped in leather strips and artificial sinew. The decoration of the web along with the shape, size and colors used is left to the artistic tastes of the individual. Feathers attached to the dream catcher are meant to assist the flight of good dreams. Although selecting the materials is usually a matter of preference, typically to make a dream catcher you will need about 7 feet of thin suede, glue, a 6 inch metal or wooden ring, waxed nylon string, 12-16 pony beads, 12-16 feathers, scissors and a clothes pin. The colors of the beads and feathers can be any you choose.

Start by gluing the suede around the ring and let it dry making sure there are no twists or bumps in the suede. The hardest part of making a dream catcher is weaving the actual web. It takes a lot of practice, but once you’ve got the idea, it gets easier each time. Fasten a long strand of sinew onto the hoop with a secure knot and then work your way around the hoop making a slip stitch at about every inch or so. You should try to make the spaces as even as possible. Once you get back to your starting point, slip stitch into the first loop that you made. Continue slip stitching through all the loops. Eventually you will make your way to the center of the hoop. If you like, you can slip a bead through the string anywhere along the web as you are slip stitching, for decorative purposes. Tie your string off and cut off the excess. You have just completed the web of this arts and crafts project.

To make the loop to hang your Dream Catcher, use a 12″ piece of suede lacing. Fold it in half and tie a knot in the open end. At the top of the ring, attach the lacing and slip the loop end through the ring and then around the ring and over the knot. Pull the lacing tight to secure it in place. To make the hanging sections, cut three 8″ pieces of suede. Tie two 8″ pieces of suede lacing about one third of the way up each side of the ring using a double knot. Slip 3 colored pony beads onto each piece of lacing and secure with a knot. Tie the last 8″ piece of lacing to the top middle of the ring. Slip three pony beads onto each piece of lacing. Finally, push two feathers up inside the beads on each piece of lacing.

Arts and crafts make wonderful presents and a homemade dream catcher is an especially thoughtful present. It make take some practice to get the weaving right, but the effort is worth it. As you get more experience with the craft of making dream catchers, you can experiment with different colors of suede and leather, beads, feathers and ring sizes. As with all of the artistic craft projects you may undertake, no two pieces need to look the same.