Mac Enterprises Kit #IJ-10 Dreamcatcher Keychain

I first learned about dreamcatchers at girl scout camp. The story I heard was that dreamcatchers were used by Native Americans to catch the bad dreams before they could reach people. The dreamcatcher would be hung above a person's bed and the bad dreams would get caught in the net. Good dreams would travel down through the feathers hanging from the bottom of the dreamcatcher to the person sleeping.

As a child, I was fascinated by anything remotely 'Native American'. When, after years of saving, I finally had enough money to buy an American Girl doll, I chose the pioneer girl character because she had a Native American friend in one of the tie-in books. It wasn't until years later that American Girl actually produced a Native American character doll. But if that doll had been around in the beginning, I probably would've picked her instead. As it was, I used to pour over the section of the Magic Attic doll catalog designated for 'their' Native American character doll, Rose, even though I couldn't afford to buy another 18 inch doll.

But to get back to the subject of dreamcatchers, I never actually learned to make a dreamcatcher in girl scouts, though some of my sisters did. However, I do have a number of dreamcatcher keychains in my collection.

Most if not all of them were originally 'free gifts' sent by charities that work with native people. Charities, especially Christian based charities it seems, will sometimes send these sorts of things by mail to encourage people to send donations. However, I picked up the ones in my collection second-hand.

I can't remember where or how I originally got a Dreamcatcher Keychain Kit by Mac Enterprises. I only know that I rediscovered it while I was going through a box of my jewelry making supplies and decided that it was about time I actually used it. Here is the sample picture that came with the kit.

And here is a photo of how my dreamcatcher turned out.

First off, I would like to start by saying that I'm convinced the cord used to make the sample keychain was thinner than the cord that came with my kit. I also had some problems with the instructions.

When attempting a new craft project, I tend to have an easier time if the instructions include step-by-step photos or diagrams. For some reason, I have more difficulty interpreting written directions without visuals. It's just the way my brain works I guess. Anyway, the instruction sheet that came with this kit did provide a series of pictures that demonstrated how to loop the cord. But the black and white sketches were hard to follow, in my opinion. The written instructions seemed thorough, but again I'm the type of person who has difficulty making sense of written directions alone. So my poor dreamcatcher ended up looking...off. I don't think that making dreamcatchers is a craft I'll be tempted to try again. But if I do decide to give it another go, I'll probably look up some online video tutorials.

Signed, Treesa