Description

The inspiration for the Owl Wall Sconce came during a children's furniture design studio I took during graduate school at the U of O. The challenge was to design a piece of furniture that would be useful and engaging to both children and adults. I ended up pursuing another design idea for the studio, but I knew that one day I would like to try making that piece. That opportunity came a few years later. The wood face of the piece is made from local book-matched curly walnut (the walnut for the sides and back actually came from wood salvaged from the remodel of the Oregon State Capitol Building). For the carving of the tree, I created a digital model and then used a CNC router to mill the design. Substantial hand sanding and carving was required to overcome limitations of the computer milling process and bring the piece to the level of quality I was after. The owl face was hand sculpted out of clay from which a mold was made to cast the final piece in translucent polyurethane. A pair of black glass marbles completed the eyes. Bird enthusiasts I hope will recognize the moon-like face to be that of a barn owl.