An Owl Cell Phone Purse

An Owl Purse in Neutrals

      Owls are messengers in many Native American cultures and in fantasy worlds like Harry Potter.  Remember the great scene where the owls fly into Hogwarts bringing letters and packages from home? I love that scene!  Recently I had a chance to use an owl and a feather in a project. 

       

     I'm taking a color class based on "Color & Design" by Heather Thomas.  It's a beautiful book - full of great color illustrations and valuable info.  The class is being taught by Ann Petersen, a world class quilter and member of Grand Stitchers. 

   
      I'm not a quilter, but I use color all the time in making my jewelry.  Taking a class about color has been a great learning experience and a chance to try out new ideas. Every month we are expected to make a new project based on a different aspect of color.  The first project was to create an item using neutrals.
  
     Normally I use much brighter colors so this was a challenge.  I had a beige  acrylic owl face and a feather from a Great Horned Owl as inspiration.  Since owls are messengers, I decided to make a cell phone purse.  I've been making Tree of Life jewelry so placing the owl in a tree seemed like a perfect fit.

     I placed the owl on a feminine Tree of Life to counter the negativity that some tribes associate with owls. Plus I love trees.

     I used Simplicity pattern #8356 for the purse. I altered the basic pattern to use lots of neutrals for the class requirement.  Although I bought 6 or 7 neutrals in a variety of patterns, I ended up using only 5 of them plus leather for the tree.  

I beaded a peyote tube and glued the owl feather inside it to protect the fragile feather.  I added some beads, crystals, and a chain handle to complete the project.

    If you'd like complete directions on how I made the purse, sign up on the e-mail list or send me a comment with your e-mail address.  The directions are free.  The pattern and book are available at many places.  I bought mine on Amazon Smile so I could support Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary with my purchase.    

Whoo's There?

     This Great Horned Owl stopped by my neighbor's house on Friday, and Kent was able to get his (her?) picture. My other neighbor was outside working in her yard, but the owl didn't seem to mind at all. He stayed for a long time even though all of us were snapping photos of him. The neighbors whose fence is being used are still in Iowa so they missed him.

      A summer or two ago one had landed in a tree behind the house. Because of the way he was acting, we thought he was sick. It was an unusally hot day, and the wind was blowing hard. The owl was perched on a tall stump and had spread his wings out. It looked like he was trying to cool off. He stayed for over an hour, even ignoring a really lucky rabbit that had hopped nearby. Eventually the owl did fly away so perhaps he wasn't sick at all.

       During the winter we sometimes hear them call to each other at night. We haven't heard any for a long time so we were hoping we might hear them Friday night. However, we have been sleeping with the window open since Friday, but we haven't heard any owls. Still, it was great to see him and have him visit.

      We've seen a lot more wildlife the last two weeks. The cool weather has either made them more active or us. I'm not sure which it is. One spectacular day was last Wednesday. Kent saw a bobcat early in the morning. When I went to see it, however, it was gone. Then about an hour later we both saw two coyotes in the yard. One of them, nicknamed "Bob" by the neighbors, has lost his tail. It didn't seem to slow him down, however. Later than night we were walking. It was already dark, but our area is well-lit. Down by the golf course, FIVE coyotes crossed the street in front of us. They were going from one side of the golf course to the other. It was too dark to tell if Bob was with them or not. We were so surprised--we had never seen eight coyotes in one day.