My Objectsphere - (Owl Edition)

A while back I wrote a post about my "objectsphere." The idea of the objectsphere comes from an article ("Mrs. Delany and the Objectsphere") I read about ceramic by Jo Dahn. The idea is that we're intimately connected to the objects we own and they aren't just things we manipulate, but they also modify our actions. In my previous post, I wrote about my backpacking gear; this time around I'll focus on our owl collection. I'll include a little bit of a background or a story with each owl.

I think it's pretty clear that I like owls. And while it's debatable as to whether or not I'm making them cool, my enthusiasm should be beyond question. If it's not, then this post will put skepticism to rest. The photo at the top is an image of a John Audubon print of a barred owl and a squirrel that I bought at an antique store here in Tucson. I actually have a tattoo of this owl on my right arm, which was done by Andrew at Renaissance Tattoo(Andrew's now at Iron Hand Tattoo) in Rhode Island, so I was pretty excited when I found it.
 

We found these two owls (above) at the Salvation Army in Worcester, Massachusetts several years ago. The second one is actually made of yarn stretched around nails. It's cool, but collects a lot of cat fur.

I got this little owl as a present from my in-laws. It's head come off so you can hide small objects inside. There's a lot of anthropological work done on object circulation and gifting, and, as you'll see, a few of our owls were gifts. The little ceramic animals to the right are from Red Rose Tea.

We bought this small brass owl at the National Emporium in Calcutta, India. Each store in the Emporium presents artisans from a particular state. Our stuff got mixed up in our luggage so I don't remember which state it was from. We stayed with our friend Ari's family in Calcutta and I must say that his mother has an owl collection that puts ours to shame.

This wooden owls is actually made by a Native America artisan in Mexico to grind peppercorns. We bought it in Tucson.

Here is perhaps our cheapest owl. It's made of rabbit fur and we bought it in Chinatown in San Francisco. He used to live in Erin's cubicle when she worked somewhere that involved cubicles. We try not to think about our cubicle days. The owls sit on a shelf next to this skunk skull. Not sure I remember where I got the skull, but it probably came from E-bay.


Perhaps this should count as two owls. We also bought this one at the National Emporium in Calcutta. If you look closely at the second picture you'll see that there's another little owl carved inside the stomach of the big owl.


The picture doesn't indicate scale well, but this ivory owls is tiny. It was a gift from my brother, Sean.

We bought this one at the Grand Canyon, but it's actually made by Pueblo Indians in Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico. They make all their pottery without using a potters wheel.

Our friends Jen and Kevin gave us this owl lantern as a gift a few years back. Thanks guys! The bullet frame and the hand grenades in the back were crafts my grandfather made in his spare time while stationed on the Aleutian Islands during World War II.

Sarah and Damien hooked us up with this one. They also bought me an owl pellet dissection kit for my birthday one year. Thanks!

I couldn't tell you where this potholder owl came from, but it's dirty and I had second thoughts about posting it. Then I decided, why the hell not? My apologies to any sticklers for clean potholders.

If you've got cool owl stuff, post a link to a photo in the comments and if I get enough, I'll do a post on other people's owls!