Emma Johnson
God's Eye Yarn Craft for An Ancient Mayan Indian Unit
A God's Eye (also spelled Gods-Eye) or, "Ojo de Dios," is an ancient symbol. It was first created by the Huichol Indians of Mexico as well as the Aymara Indians of Boliva.
It is a great craft for school-age students to work on, with the pictures here showing how the students in the fifth-grade classes of Mrs. Nicole Anderson-Trampel and Mrs. Stephany at Durand Elementary Art had a great time making these for art class! It worked well with the class's unit studying Native American's such as the ancient Mayan Indians and talking about how God's Eyes were often found in old Pueblos within New Mexico.
What you Need to Make a God's Eye
1. A lot of yarn.
2. Two craft sticks for each student
How To Make a God's Eye
1. Cross the two crafting sticks to make the shape of an, "X."
2. Secure the sticks so that they stay in place by wrapping a piece of yarn around the points where the sticks intersect. You can tie this as a knot or stick the tail under the yarn as you being wrapping.
3. Do a few wraps in one direction, then rotate the sticks and wrap in the other direction to be sure the sticks are stable and will not shift.
4. Now start to wrap the yarn around one of the sticks, beginning close to the center of the God's eye, then move over to the next stick, wrap around it, and return to the first stick. Continue to wrap and wind, making sure you rotate the God's Eye craft while working. Note that it does not matter whether you wrap the yarn over or under the sticks as long as you do one method consistently.
5. Eventually through doing this process the God's Eye will be complete!
Notes About Making the God's Eye Craft
It might possibly take your students a number of attempts to feel like they have an understanding of the winding process. It requires quite a bit of coordination and that is one reason this activity is so good for developing fine motor skills as well.
If any of your students get discouraged just remind they that they have to really concentrate when they hold their sticks in one hand and the yarn in another. Offer support for them to keep trying to use their coordination so that they feel comfortable weaving and turning their ornament as they do the craft. There is a great deal of aspects to focus on, but as students get into a, "Groove," of doing the repetitive movements they'll find this craft very relaxing and quite gratifying!
