Dream Catchers

I came across a picture of a dream catcher made using crochet doilies and figured I'd try my hand at making some. For several months I've been keeping an eye out for all the supplies I'd need. There was no tutorial only a photo of the finished dream catcher, so I just winged it. I started with centering each doily in an embroidery hoop...

I cut off the excess on the backsides of each hoop and ran some white glue along the cut edges to keep the pieces from unraveling. I then covered that with a piece of cut lace to cover up the edge.

I was needing a lot of ribbon to hang from the embroidery hoops... and was in the process of cutting up what little ribbon I had into thin strands... Luckily, I came across some large bolts of ribbon, at $3.00 each I couldn't pass it up!

The fun part was gluing flowers along one of the edge of each dream catcher.

 I could have had a little heavier hand on the flowers, but as it was-- I kept having flashbacks to the '80's...

 I think they turned out kinda-cute...

 I only made four of these and have a stack more that are needing the hanging lace and then some flowers added to them... I got bored of making them. *wink*

 This tiny one I'll add to a sign stating the price of the dream catchers...

I've pretty much sold out of everything I've made at past craft events I've been apart of... and I'm needing a lot of things to replenish my stock. We'll see how well these do. Something different.
big hugs,
Cheryl

Viking Knit

Along with learning how to wire wrap cabochons, I've also been taking classes on how to weave a chain out of wire. Surprisingly, it is super easy. I have never heard nor seen this before, so I was intrigued. The process is called, "Viking Knit." If you googled those words you could easily find how to create your own loom and create your own chain. Seriously easy-peasy.
Here is the first piece I created, a bracelet. It wasn't intended to be anything... but it ended up being long enough to fit around a wrist, so "ta-da" a bracelet! I pulled it through the draw-plate as far as I could which created the super tight weave-- which I don't particularly like, so I won't pull anymore this tight in the future. I created a second  length of Viking Knit with the remaining silver that was on the spool. Practice makes perfect. The second piece measures at 15 inches. I would have liked this one longer but ran out of wire. Again, I feel I should have stopped pulling the wire knit through the draw-plate before it got so compressed.

Here is another piece I made, this piece was made using super cheap/common 24 gauge copper spool wire that cost about $3.00 a spool. I have been pulling off wire from this spool for years, even so with what remained, it made a woven length that measured at 18 inches straight off the loom. Once you pull it off the loom, you use junk wire to use as a pulling handle to tug it through the draw-plate.
After pulling it through the plastic draw plate it created a wire woven chain that measured at 36 inches. Pure magic I tell you! The absolutely hardest part of creating a Viking Knit chain is not making it long enough to have a really nice length of chain. I had read online that you can make a super long Viking Knit chain and cut it up and use the pieces as it doesn't unravel because it is wire.
So, with that in mind, I just kept using the wire off the spool until I ran out. That is how I determined the length....figuring I could cut it to make it shorter with no heartache. The length is actually perfect so that was a happy outcome.

 To make the ends of the necklace I made some coils and added that over the thicker end wire attaching the clasp as I created the ends.

 Actually, the necklace is long enough that it doesn't need an actual clasp, but I like how it looks.

I like making the Viking Knit chains. They are super easy and are nice to have a "go-to" project I can work on mindlessly while talking on the phone or listening to the television. Plus, it is a nice way to get rid of all my junk wire. *wink*
big hugs,
Cheryl