Dream Catcher

Miss Nita Jane is a sufferer of horrible dreams. I hope she won’t mind me telling you this. I’m sure she will let me know if she does. If she does, I will delete this bit, and write an equally interesting introduction to this blog. In any case, I often sleep quite lightly when I am beside her. It means I can gently bring her back to safety and comfort from the horrors she faces in her sleep.
I was worried about leaving her again, and wondered whether young Gary was up to the challenge of keeping my girl feeling safe and cosy in her sleep. I figured he was a bit green, and so I decided on making her a dream catcher.
I have never been a follower of these things before. In fact, in the past I have often thought of them as quite tacky. However, the picture in my mind was like no dream catcher I had seen anywhere, and so I decided to persist. I kept my eyes peeled for bits of discarded metal, feathers, and anything else that would serve to preserve my girl’s peaceful sleeps.
All items gathered, I packed them together and set out to her house, where I was spending the evening. As it happened, that night I had terribly vivid and unsettling dreams myself. So much so, that I had huge heebie jeebies the next morning and felt like I couldn’t stay there. I packaged up my materials again and headed for home, determined to make the dreamcatcher that very day.
I plonked myself in front of the telly at Mum and Dad’s and set to work. In my collection of materials were: an old metal insert from an embroidery hoop ($1 from the Salvos); 6metres of thin black ribbon ($7 from Lincraft); some lovely purple ostrich feathers ($5 from clegs); assorted bits of metal and stuff I had collected in my travels; diamante buttons ($3 from clegs); and the piece de resistance, something I had been hunting for for ages, some old chandelier crystals ($6 for a handful from a closing-down second-hand shop on High Street). I also had assorted bits of black cord, ribbon and elastic that was left over from other projects.
All in all, not a great deal of outlay. I looked at a few websites for help with the initial weaving and knotting of the dreamcatcher frame, but otherwise, I just made it up as I went along. It was quite easy once I got the rhythm going, just a bit fiddly with all that ribbon tagging along for each knot. And yes I used the whole 6 metres of ribbon. With no wastage. Good guess, eh?

Once I had finished the frame, I started pinning on the treasures that I had gathered, trying to work out the best spots for each of them. I sewed them to their chosen spots and after each one, held it up to see what it looked like. I have deliberately left plenty of space for Miss Nita Jane to add her own treasures. Hopefully things that bring happy thoughts with them and will chase away the bad dreams.
We hung the dream catcher above Miss Nita Jane’s bed. So far it seems to be working reasonably well, there has even been a night of no dreams at all, which is just fabulous. I don’t have a pic of it up on the wall, but surely she will read this, and hopefully put up a picture for you all (hint hint, honey!).

I loved this project. It had a very useful purpose, and I really enjoyed putting my own upcycling spin on a traditional object. The rhythmic knotting was very therapeutic, and it was a great project for the cold, rainy Melbourne Friday that it ended up being created on.

A good day’s work, methinks.