A Beautiful Dream Catcher

I've been working on some new pieces lately for an Artist's Tour of Studios that I've been juried into that's called "The Art Odyssey". It happens to be next week and I did a Dream Catcher as one of the pieces that I will have on display.

  "Native Americans believe that the night air is filled with dreams both good and bad. The dream catcher when hung over or near your bed catches the dreams as they flow by. The good dreams pass through the outer holes and slide down the soft feathers so gently that at times the sleeper does not know that he/she is dreaming. The bad dreams not knowing the way get tangled in the dream catcher and perish with the first light of the new day."

The items needed for this project are: 

Waxed linen thread (2 or 3 coordinating colors)
A few beads that coordinate with the thread but large enough to not go through the holes that you have drilled.
A special piece to hang from the thread in the center.
Inks for coloring the gourd
A base for the gourd
A Proxxon Jig Saw STS 12/E
AProxxon Micromot Rotary Tool 50/E
A Proxxon Delta Sander OZI/E

It doesn't take a lot of supplies to make a beautiful dreamcatcher. To start with you need to clean the outside of your gourd and to cut a hole in the gourd with your Proxxon Jig Saw STS 12/E  and clean out the insides.

Once you have completed that dirty job you then need to sand the edges of your gourd with the Proxxon Delta Sander OZI/E to smooth them a bit before weaving. This helps to keep your gourd from cutting into the thread that you are using and break your thread.                                                                                                             

Then you need to color your gourd with whatever colors of ink that you have chosen, seal your gourd with a good sealer. Then drill holes around your gourd to start your weaving with the Proxxon Micromot Rotary Tool 50/E

Once you have drilled your holes you will use a weaving pattern and weave your threads around until you finish your design and have a dreamcatcher with a wonderful little embellishment attached! Set this beauty somewhere in your house to catch those "bad" dreams. Enjoy

Barbara