So, I really don’t want to call this a dream catcher, since I haven’t done nearly enough of the research to do justice to the traditions behind dream catchers. This is not a dream catcher, it is a Prop, for a game. This game has dream magic, and one of the basics of it is the building of these dream catcher like charms that hold things important to the dream mage. Unlike what little I know about the traditions of real dream catchers, these do not catch nightmares and let good dreams pass through. Instead a dream mage builds it with symbols and trinkets of the things that are important to them for two purposes as far as I can tell. First, to act as an anchor to reality when the mage goes dream walking. And Second, as a means to draw strengths, tools, and even other people into the dream with the mage to help them.
To start off the shebang, let’s talk materials. I used a 5 inch hoop, some kodiak tanned leather (about 1/4 inch strips), and 1/4 inch strips of thin muslin. The leather and the hoop make sense, but why cloth strips you ask? Why not sinew, or embroidery floss, or something pretty? Well, that has to do with the fact that this is a prop for a specific character. Were I just making a pretty bauble for myself, I would have gone with one of those other options. The muslin is to stand in for fabric cut from another prop: a handkerchief embroidered by the character’s lost love. It’s going to have a few more actual charms and baubles hung from it and tucked into the weave when it’s finished.
Above you can see a bit of the glue I used. Eventually I was using wooden clothes pins to hold things in place while it dried, because I have no patience to sit there and hold it myself. You can also see the mess of tangled cord starting to build up. This was taken before I got sense and started pulling the leather all the way through every time. The rest is pretty self explanatory.
Still some glue peeking out that needs to be cleaned off, but otherwise I’m really happy with this.
Setting up the pattern, it’s really just a series of switchbacks.