November's Art Bead Scene Challenge

                                                          Owl above door to center reading room on fifth floor of the 

Library of Congress’s John Adams Building, Washington, D.C., 1930's

by Lee Lawrie

November's Art Bead Scene Challenge is based a beautiful metalwork owl in the John Adams Building of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. This owl adorns the door to the fifth floor’s center reading room. It is called “the owl of wisdom” and is a prime example of the 1930s Art Deco style. In addition, a sculpted stone owl of Lawrie’s is also inside the building. The John Adams Building is renowned for its exquisite doors, which are another artwork of the famed sculptor Lee Lawrie.

Owl Necklace by BayMoonDesign

My daughter and I both love owls so I took this challenge as an opportunity to make an owl necklace.  I sold all of my owl necklaces from past years and I needed to replenish my online shop with at least one. This challenge motivated me to do that. I have a number of ceramic owls that my artist cousin Sandy Sapienza made early in her career when she was into making ceramics. Her art interests have drifted toward fiber arts so she gifted the owls to me to make them into jewelry. I have been working with metal recently and made this oak copper leaf. I  credit Heather Powers for teaching me how to do this at one of her workshops. I layered Sandy's handmade ceramic owl on my copper leaf by running a copper chain through the upper part of the owl to attach it to a branch connector. The leaf is wire wrapped to the branch underneath the owl. Figuring out how to combine those 3 elements was the most difficult part of this design. It is a long necklace that is 24 inches around the neck with bead and copper links on a chain. The unique oak leaf and artisan owl pendant add an additional 4 inches below. It is available for purchase in my online store.  By the way, I am offering free US shipping and gift wrapping from now through Cyber Monday with coupon code FREEUS.

                                       photo by Andy Chilton:: https://unsplash.com/@andyc

Owl Totem Quote

“Don’t count your owls before they are delivered.” 

Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter

photo by Massimo Mancini :: https://unsplash.com/@mancio00

Some of the many Symbolic meanings for the owl are:
Intuition--ability to see what others do not see 
The presence of the owl announces change 
Capacity to see beyond deceit and masks 
Wisdom 
Traditional meaning of the owl --spirit animal is the announcer of death, most likely symbolic like a life transition, change

When I look at the owl in my necklace, I see the owl as a symbol of wisdom. What do you see in the owl?