How to Make a Pentagram Herb Dryer

I made this beautiful herb dryer for Lughnasadh, but it is a great autumn craft as well! You might be wondering what the significance of the pentagram shape is. The pentagram has been used for thousands of years and in many religious traditions, but in Wicca it represents spirit, air, fire, water, and earth. While the terms can be used interchangeably, I use pentagram for the five-pointed star by itself and pentacle when the star is in or on a circle. This diagram shows what the five points mean:

To make the herb dryer, you will need:

• Five twigs that are all about 18 inches long and about 3/8 inch thick.

• Twine

• Five colors of 7/8″ wide ribbon cut to 52″ long.

• Clear hair bands (optional, but really helpful!)

• Two long twister ties

• Five or more S hooks

• Herbs to dry

• Scissors

My ribbon was 1 3/4 inches wide, so I cut it in half lengthwise to get 7/8″ wide strips. This worked very well but 3/4″ or 1″ wide would have worked too.

Lay your twigs out in a pentagram shape. Try to arrange them so they fit together easily:

Use the clear hair bands to secure the ends of the twigs together. This makes it much easier to wrap the twine around the ends without messing up the pentagram shape in the next step!

Cut five pieces of twine about 18 inches long. Wrap one piece around each point and triple knot the ends:

I was going to attach the pentagram to a wreath that I have, but the wreath was a little too small and I decided to save it for a Mabon craft.

To make the pentagram sturdy enough without the wreath, I also tied the twigs together at the five center cross points:

Trim the ends of the twine:

Decide the order of your ribbons:

Bring one end under a point of the pentagram and leave about eight inches out on the short end. Wrap the short end of the ribbon around the twigs several times and then triple knot the end. Trim if needed

Twist the long end of the ribbon so it will go flat as shown:

Gather the five ribbons together, making sure they stay flat coming up:

I made my ribbons 24 inches from the pentagram to the gathering point. Secure the ribbons tightly with a twister tie. Allow the ribbon ends to hang down in the middle.

Wash your herbs and pat them dry. Gather your herbs into bunches, and wrap the stem ends with twine. It worked better to wrap the S hooks onto the stems that to try to add them later:

Hang your herb bundles on your herb dryer using the S hooks:

I used the second long twister tie to secure my herb dryer to the track lighting in my work area:

This herb dryer was really fun to make and I love how it turned out! Please share your photos and tag me on Instagram @vegankitchenmagick if you make your own!