Latest Addition to Our Arts & Crafts - Dream Catchers

Neither Mel nor I had ever made a dream catcher until this last month or so but he's had an interest and I have some Native American blood in me so dreamcatchers were a natural fit into our line of crafts at Nature Inspired Handcrafts.

Thanks to the internet and all the free information available we've now added 12 unique dream catchers although oh gee - one has sold already. That tells me right off that they are going to be profitable. Also our Grandson, Andrew, received one for his 5th birthday earlier this month after he mentioned to Grandma and Papa several times that he 'really needs a dreamcatcher' because he has bad dreams.

We've added some dream catcher history on our web site but today I'd like to talk a bit about the dreamcatcher 'construction'. How to make a dream catcher turned out to be much easier than I thought and really lets the creative nature come out.

• The dream catchers we have in stock right now started with metal rings purchased at the local crafts store. We then wrapped each ring with leather (we have 3 sizes in 2 different shades of leather).
• After the rings were wrapped it was then forming the 'web' of the catcher. Afraid we didn't use natural here - the original dream catchers were made with sinew which is tendons (the Indians saved this from the deer they killed for food and clothing).
• The web is woven to simulate a spider web where the 'bad dreams' are caught and not allowed to ender the sleeper below it's rest.
• We've added to each dreamcatcher a small glass bead which are made by us also by using the lampworking process.
• Lastly the dream catchers are decorated with more glass beads and feathers (we collect those mainly from the chickens out behind the studio).

This picture is a sample of one of the dream catchers we have available for sale right now and one of my favorites as I love lavendar which is the color of the beads.

This coming week we plan on added even more unique dream catchers to the line making these even closer to the original by using grapevines rather than the metal and leather. Mel has already cut the vines, I have a great collection of beads finished and feathers waiting.

Feel free to visit our online store Nature Inspired Handcrafts Store to see more pictures of our dream catchers and other handcrafted items.