Display your heritage or just show others that you love Native American artwork by making a dream catcher wind chime set. There’s different ways to make the dream catcher or mandella. One has a web of strings and the other has a large piece of leather as the center. Either one is beautiful when hanging on the front porch.
Purchase a metal ring of any size you desire. The large dream catchers are beautiful but the small ones are cute so you’ll be thrilled with the project no matter what size you choose. You’ll also need leather strips, feathers, beads, and narrow pipe cut for chimes.
Hot glue works great if you want to do the project quickly without fuss. Decide on the design of either the web of strings or the solid leather piece. For the solid piece simply lay the ring down on the wrong side of the leather and draw a circle three inches larger than the ring, all the way around. Cut an additional leather piece a half inch smaller than the actual ring. Lay a line of hot glue near the edge of the large leather piece and wrap it over the top of the ring and adhere it to the back of the leather. Continue placing more hot glue on the edge then wrapping it around the back until the leather is completely attached to the metal ring. Cut a four inch strip of leather. Fold it in half and attach the ends to a spot on the backside of the ring. Glue the ends side-by-side. This will be the hanger for the dream catcher. Now glue the small piece of leather on to the back side, just inside the metal ring.
The web of strings can be done in many different patterns. One easy pattern is to start by placing a dot of hot glue on any spot on the ring. Affix the end of the string or twine to the glue. Take the thread to the opposite point on the ring and glue. Continue wrapping around the ring with the twine a half inch apart each time. End the ring wrapping in the center of the dream catcher. Attach a ceramic tee pee, wolf or Indian to the center.
For the dream catchers with the solid leather piece poke a hole in the leather, just above the ring, at the exact opposite point of the hanger. Now poke a hole on each side of that one, two inches away. Poke another set of holes two inches away from the last set. This will give you a place for 5 chimes. Poke the hole all the way through from the front to the back. Cut a strip of leather twelve inches long for the large dream catchers. Adjust the leather strip sizes for smaller dream catchers. Push two inches of the twelve inches through from the front to the back of the center hole. Bring the end over to the long piece of stripping. Slide a bead over the long piece and up onto the small piece. The bead should now have two leather strips inserted into it. Hot glue the bead into place. Slide another bead onto the remaining length of leather, about halfway up the strip. Squirt hot glue into the bead and push a feather or two into the bottom opening of the bead. Slide the end of the leather strip into the chime hole and tie off or glue. Repeat the pattern for the other leather strips, putting the end through and sliding on the bead, then attaching another bead, feather, and chime.
The same is done to the web design except no holes need be poked. Simply slide the leather strip through the strings at the very bottom, then others on the sides of that one. Do the bead, feather, chime pattern and attach hanger to complete.
