THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 1, 1995 TAG: 9412290160
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JEWEL BOND
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
LEGEND HAS IT that Native Americans believed the night air was filled with dreams, both good and bad.
A dream catcher, when hung, swings freely in the air and catches dreams as they float by. The good dreams know the way and slip through the soft center hole, then fly down off the soft feathers so gently that many times sleepers do not know they are dreaming.
The bad dreams, not knowing the way, get entangled in the netting or webbing and perish with the first light of the new day.
The Indians made dream catchers from grapevines, forming them into wreaths. Strips of leather were used to attach the feathers, beaten silver and turquoise. Each tribe had its own method for fashioning the dream catchers, but all had one distinct characteristic - an animal or object symbolic to their tribe.
The medicine men, or elders, of the tribes would carve the totem and incorporate it into the wreaths, which were hung over children's sleeping areas to ward off evil dreams.
There is evidence that the North Carolina Indians made dream catchers, said Carl Bornfriend of the Frisco Native American Museum, which is now a major supporter of two modern women's efforts to create dream catchers from local treasures.
Dorothy Hope, a University of North Carolina art major, and Carmen Gray, a retired Manteo schoolteacher, comb the beaches daily for decorative items to fill their nautical dream catchers.
``We make our dream catchers from anything we can pick up on the beach: shells, driftwood, beach glass, flotsam and feathers,'' says Gray. ``They are all made by hand - a real labor of love.''
They make their dream catchers in a variety of shapes: round, swags, stars and ovals. It is an art rather than a craft, says Gray, with some pieces taking as long as four hours to complete. ``Dorothy is the artistic one,'' she says. ``She's the one that makes them look so beautiful.''
Gray's first sighting of dream catchers came while on vacation in Florida in 1993. She ``popped'' into a store called The Whistle Stop and found them hanging in abundance. ``I examined the way they were made,'' she says, ``and decided right then and there - the Outer Banks needed nautical dream catchers.''
Back home, after researching her project, she called her partner and friend Hope. They went straight to Gray's backyard and started stripping grapevines. ``I saw so many snakes, I stripped those vines at record speed,'' says Hope.
Hope and Gray met through a mutual friend in 1986 and became instant friends. The next eight years would take them together through the heartache and pain of losing their mothers and the shared excitement of two other entrepreneurial ventures before dream teachers became a reality.
Their first collaboration came early in their friendship. Hope mentioned to Gray the need for a tuna cookbook to help deep-sea fishing purists with loads of tuna and no idea what to do with it. That's all it took.
For a year, they met frequently in the kitchen to cook tuna, and finally settled on 92 tried-and-true recipes. ``Our tuna cookbook covers catching, cooling, cleaning and cooking,'' says Hope.
A friend, Suzanne Tate, a prominent author of children's books, gave the partners every piece of information possible to help get the cookbook printed. Gray and Hope chose a printer on the Outer Banks ``to keep the money here on the beach,'' Gray says.
The book was published under C&D Publishing in late 1987. ``We've had 12,000 copies printed, and we're into the third printing,'' says Gray.
After the success of the cookbook, Hope toyed with an idea for a fast-food product. She casually mentioned to Gray, ``I know what we need - a cobbler mix.'' Back to the kitchen from April to August of 1993. Trial and error produced a packaged cobbler mix ready to sell.
Hope and Gray market their own products.
``We have spent an awful lot of money,'' says Gray. ``But things are changing; we are beginning to make money.''
Both were pushed hard this Christmas. They made dream catcher ornaments for the first time. The two of them made 279 ornaments in a week for an 8-foot tree donated to the Festival of Trees by Chuck Powell of Mulligan's restaurant. The tree auctioned for $400.
``We may make the ornaments next year for sale,'' says Gray.
``All of our products are now doing well,'' says Gray. ``Mine and Dorothy's next project - and a most important one - is a museum. It will be a beachcomber's museum, totally nautical - my family's collection from seven generations. It's still on the drawing board, hopefully for next year.'' MEMO: The ``Love That Tuna'' cookbook, $4.95; the cobbler mix, $4; and dream
catchers, $9.95 to $49.95, are copyrighted under their business name, C
& D Publishing/Watermelon Ice, and sold at stores in Manteo and on the
Outer Banks.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Dorothy Hope makes dream catchers using objects found on the beach
or with nautical influences.
by CNB