Long ago when the world was young, an old man sat on a high mountain and had a vision. In his vision, Iktomi, the great teacher of wisdom, appeared in the form of a spider. Iktomi spoke to him in a sacred language that only the old man could understand.
As he spoke, Iktomi the spider took the elder's willow hoop which had feathers, horse hairs, beads and offerings on it and began to spin a web.
He spoke to the elder about the cycles of life and how we begin our lives as infants and how we went from childhood, to adulthood. Then finally, we go to old age where we must be taken care again as infants, so that we complete the cycle.
Iktomi said, "In each time of life there are many forces and different directions that can help or hurt the harmony of nature, and the Great Spirit and all of his teachings.
Iktomi gave the web to the elder and said, "The web is a perfect circle but there is a hole in the center of the cirlce. If you believe in the Great Spirit, the web will catch your bad dreams and the good ones will go through the hole. Use the web to help your people make good use of their dreams and visions.
The elder passed on his vision to his people and even today, many of us use the dreamcatcher as the web of life.
It is hung above our beds or in our home to sift dreams
and visions. The good dreams and visions will go through
but the bad ones will be caught and will melt away with the
morning sun.
It will bless your sleep with pleasant dreams,
good luck, and harmony through out your life.
It is believed that the hole in the center of the web
allows the good dreams through,
while the bad dreams are trapped in the web
until they disappear in the morning sun.
There are many ways to make a dreamcatcher, this is only 1 example.
Materials that will be needed will be for a 5 inch ring.
note: you can make the dream catcher as large as you want,
you will just have to adjust the amount of materials
accordingly.These materials can be found in any arts and
crafts store and are inexpensive..
5" ring or a branch from a tree that is approximately 12
inches long..just bend the branch into a circle.
4 yards Suede lacing ,there are many colors to choose
from.. usally black or brown used..
9 feet of nylon string or fishing line
1-3 Small Conchos, depending on what style you want
Beads They can be of any size or design you choose. You
will need at least 20 of these, depending on your design.
Feathers, they come in a variety of colors
scissors, glue (preferably hot glue), and a clothes pin
or some type of clip.
1.Take the suede lacing and Glue one end of the lacing
to the ring. Wrap the suede lacing around the ring until
you reach the starting point again. Glue the end of the
lacing to the ring. Hold it in place with the clothes pin
or clip until the glue dries
2. To make the web, tie one end of the nylon or fishing
line to the ring. Make nine loop knots around the ring
spacing them about 1-1/2 apart. Make the last loop a little
closer to the first knot so there isn't a gap. Keep the
thread snug between the knots.
3. Begin the next row of the web in the middle of the
loop that you have already made in row 1. Continue weaving
each row the same way until you have a small hole left in
the center. Tie a double knot in the fishing line or nylon
string, Put a drop of glue on the knot so that it won't
untie and cut off remaining thread.
4. To make the loop to hang your Dream Catcher, use 8 to
12 inch piece of suede and fold it in half and tie a knot
leaving a koop at the top. Now tie this to the loop.
5. To add hanging sections, cut three pieces of suede to
the length you want them to hang and tie them to the loop
about half way up..Now but some beads on the pieces of
seude and you can either leave the pieces of seude straight
or you can braid them putting the beads on as you braid.
at this point you can add a concho to a 12 inch piece of
seude and put beads on it and attach to the top of the
Dream Catcher
6. Now your ready to put on the feathers just push the
feathers up inside the beads on each piece of lacing Glue
the feathers if they are loose. Also feathers are attatched
to each side of the concho.
There are many ways to make dream catchers and you can be as creative as you want, there aren't any real set rules on how you can do it.
One thing to remember is if you are going to use a 5 inch ring you want 5 yards of seude, a 8 inch ring would take 8 yards..You will have to also buy a few extra yards of seude to make the attachments.
I hope this has been helpful and you have very pleasant dreams..
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