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Unique Handcrafted Jewelry |
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Unique Handcrafted Jewelry |
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The Real Story about Dream Catchers There are many stories floating around as to the history and legends of dream catchers, nearly as many as there are varieties of dream catchers. There is however one common thread within these stories: bad dreams are trapped in the web of the dream catcher (which resembles a spider web) and good dreams are permitted to drop to the sleeping person below. Traditional dream catchers were small, less than 3 inches and placed over the beds of babies. Although dream catchers are a Native American tradition it wasn’t until much later years that many of the American tribes picked up the tradition. The original dream catchers were made by the Ojibway (Chippewa) tribe, also spelled Ojibwe and Ojibwa . The Chippewas are one of the largest American Indian groups in North America. There are nearly 150 different bands of Chippewa Indians living throughout their original home land in the northern United States (especially Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan) and southern Canada (especially Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan). The name "Michigan" is an Indian word meaning "big lake" referring to Lake Michigan. And that’s where Nature Inspired Handcrafts calls home, Faith and Mel the owners and artists are both natives of Michigan although each has lived around the country and even the world. Both are back home in Michigan again. As for our dream catchers neither of us can lay claim to be of the Chippewa tribe but we still do our best to create our dream catchers with the Native American’s designs in mind. Our dream catchers are not the cookie cutter, fake, dream catchers that are shipped in from other countries or mass produced. Each dream catcher created by us is hand wrapped, the webs are woven right here, the glass beads are made by us in our studio, and the feathers we use are collected by us right here in Michigan. We do our best to keep them as natural as possible and no two dream catchers are exactly alike. If you are looking for something particular and don’t see it in our store feel free to contact us and we’ll do our best to provide that special dream catcher for your need or desire. |