Making dream catchers

[wyrdewood]

As a way of passing time in the shop,on quiet, rainy, days like today, I sit and make dream catchers. My question is that I was recently told by a customer that traditionally a dream catcher should be no wider than the span of an adult hand. I queried where they had heard this but they couldn't recall. Does anyone know if this is fact or myth. If a fact, how do you know? I have looked on the internet but get contradictory information, with no conclusive evidence to support either option.

BB
Julian

[moonsmith]

Google "Museum of Myth and Legend" in Wem [Shrops]

I go to a story telling there whenever I can. Dez and Ali are wonderful people and are very very helpful. I'm SURE I remember Dez telling a story about the creation of dream catchers. There is a definite significance as to what you weave into the web as well - to catch the good dreams and avoid the nasty ones.

PS if it WASN'T Dez then PM me and I will wring out the grey stuff and try and find out where I heard it.

Sweet Dreams

[duane]

first I heard of that, DreamCatchers can be any size.

[wyrdewood]

Thanks go to Moonsmith for putting me in touch with Dez and Ali at the Museum of myth and legend. They settled the query straight away, and I quote,
"A dreamcatcher is traditionally a grandmother’s gift to her newborn grandchild. And as the newborn child is carried in a sling on its mother’s back, the dreamcatcher has to be the right size to hang safely over the child’s head. A hand-sized and shaped dreamcatcher is ideal."

[amberlady]

Like most thing adapted by New Age mysticism, dream catchers are surrounded by a lot of mythology. A down to Earth explanation of dream catchers can be found at:

www.nativetech.org/dreamcat/dreamcat.html