Dream Catcher

  This Thanksgiving I'm going to focus on the Indians whose help enabled the Pilgrims to survive.  A dream catcher is the perfect Native American craft. I looked on YouTube and found several video tutorials but was a bit surprised to find that the materials to make one were more expensive than I had thought (about $35) so I looked around for some substitutions.

I had a scrap piece of leather that I cut into 1/4" strips. 

Using Shoe Goop, I glued the strips together and clamped them with clips.

I clamped one end of the leather strip to the hoop leaving a 3" tail and started wrapping around the metal ring. When I reached the end I tied the two tails together to form a loop for hanging.

The beading department of Michael's had some cording that was more reasonable than the artificial sinew in their leather-craft department. I strung on a few beads from my stash.

Next I cut a length of cording that was longer than I thought I'd need and wrapped it into a bobbin.

I tied the end on the hoop and proceeded to loop the cord going under, over and through and then pulled it taut.

I continued around the hoop until I reached the beginning.

I looped the cord through each previous loop using the same stitch as before (adding a bead here and there) until I was finished. There should be a hole in the middle. This is to let the good dreams escape while the web catches the bad dreams (or vice versa- it's a bit of a controversy). I tied a knot  and secured it with a drop of white glue.

 I put some of the Goop onto the end of a feather and wrapped with cording. I added a bead and tied it onto the bottom of the hoop.

 This turned out to be a very practical craft as a small boy in the family was beginning to have some nightmares and could really use some protection.