Hello! I was thrilled to be asked to join the DIY DAY Ambassadors team and I’m excited to share this tutorial with you. I have been playing around with fiber projects like this, inspired all the weavings all wall hangings I’ve seen on different blogs recently. I haven’t tackled a loom weaving (yet), but last year I made this god’s eye style piece for my living room: http://www.michellebazeley.com/2015/08/gods-eye-wall-hanging.html . I call it a God’s Eye ‘style’ because after reading about these beautiful handcrafted pieces that artists create with intention and a real history behind them, I don’t want to disrespect what they do with my own DIY version. I consider this more a decorative piece inspired by their work. I had so much fun creating my first one ( I see it everyday and still LOVE it. Win!) and it was so easy that I knew this would be a great project to share with all of you.
I’m giving this piece to my niece Madison and I pulled yarn out of my stash I knew would compliment her room. The final size is about 12”, so I didn’t need much of each color. You probably have made one these at some point- maybe at camp or in school? The technique is pretty simple, and you can finish one easily in a couple of hours! I think that’s what makes it so satisfying.
Supplies: wooden dowels (mine were 12”), various yarn, scissors, hot glue, skinny leather cording and a few beads if you want them for the tassels.
1. To get started lay your two dowels side by side and mark the center. Choose yarn for the center and wrap around BOTH dowels 4 times. DON’T cut it. Pivot one dowel so the two end up perpendicular to each other. You’ll see the yarn you just wrapped is pulled into a half ‘X’, take the long part of the yarn and wrap the other side of the ‘X’ 4 times. Don’t cut it. I hate that this picture isn’t more clear, but I zoomed in to show the X pattern, hopefully it helps you a little bit if my description isn’t clear.
2. To get started building the God’s eye take the long end of the yarn and wrap one dowel at a time, clockwise. After a few passes it will look like this:
3. When you are ready to change colors, just tie off color #1 with a double knot (you can see that in the above picture) and then tie color #2 on a different post. (too many knots on one dowel might make a weird bump). Then you just keep wrapping until you get the size you want. A traditional God’s Eye is added to by family members as a child grows, so it is an ever changing piece of art – isn’t that a lovely thought?
Because the technique is so simple, you can be creative with colors and fibers. You could use skinny ribbon or other fibers instead of string! You’ll see my final piece the yarn is a little droopy. I think that’s just the yarn I picked. It had a bit of stretch to it. Other fibers might not do that. Another way to change things up is by going backwards. Instead of wrapping front to back clockwise, flip it over and work from the back like I did with the pink fibers! I think it gave a bit of interest to the final look.
4. Once you have your piece the size you want you can decide how to finish off the ends. I used skinny leather to wrap the ends of my dowel using a bit of hot glue. I also used the leather to make a loop for hanging.
5. What do you want to add to the bottom? I had a few leather scraps left over and tied those on. I added this simple yarn tassel and five wood beads. Five because there are 5 members in Maddie’s family, so I think it works as a bit of a talisman. If you believe a piece like this can bring good dreams and good spirits to the recipient, then having a reminder of her family could pass a few good vibes to them as well.
Thank you for joining me and please come see me over at HotWheelsandGlueGuns.com! If you decide to try your hand at one of these PLEASE share a pic with me, I sincerely would love to see it!
xoxo,
Michelle Bazeley
National DIY DAY Ambassador| Hot Wheels and Glue Guns
Louisville, KY
Hot Wheels and Glue guns is a memory keeping and crafting blog.
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