Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

   In many cultures, owls are omens of death, destruction and harbingers of bad luck.   Fortunately in our Western culture, we see owls as a symbol of wisdom.   Their image is used often in our art.   And the ‘scary’ Barn Owl is associated with Halloween.   The Barn Owl is white and hunts at night taking on a ‘ghostly’ quality in moonlight and their screech ends abruptly sounding like someone just died.   Good time to find out more about owls! It turns out there are 19 species of owls in the U.S. and over 200 species in the world.   Many of them like the climate and terrain of Arizona.   I’ve seen only a few because they hunt during the night and rest during the day.   Just opposite of my activities!     Great Horned Owl - Portal AZ  Owls have large round heads, forward facing big eyes (about the size of ours), sharp beaks and long strong talons.   The placement of their eyes allows them to see straight ahead (binocular vision) as well as incorporating the side vision

Sometimes when you finish a project or in my case a piece of jewelry, you just want to show it to someone.   So I took my just finished necklace, bracelet and earrings to show my friend, Kim, at Bead-It here in Prescott.     This group of jewelry was my experiment into using sheet metals with eyelets and rivets.     She had asked earlier if I wanted to teach a class in cold connections and I agreed.   Cold connections are ways to connect individual parts and make a piece of jewelry without soldering or using a kiln.   I’ve learned many techniques at the classes I’ve taken in cold connections from some of the best teachers – Susan Lenart Kazmer and Deryn Mentock .   So I thought why not? Well, Kim was as excited about my new pieces as I was and so I will be teaching how to make this necklace.   In order to teach a class of 4 to 6 people, I need to be organized!   So I’ve started a syllabus with a list of materials needed and how much the cost of materials will be.   I have an outline o

 see the silver metal clay pendant at the end of this post  I have to confess that I am not a mushroom lover.   I also must confess that I am intrigued with their appearance and have taken a great many photos of them from the east coast to the west; from forests to mountains and in my brother’s front yard in Missouri.   Many of the books I read (you know- the romance novels about Ireland and Scotland) often talk about the importance of fungi in medical treatment and in witch’s brews!   So I thought October would be a great month to share some of those pictures as well as share some of their history. The ancient Egyptians (about 4600 years ago according to hieroglyphics) thought the mushroom was the plant of immortality.   Mushrooms were declared to be the food for only royalty; no commoners could touch them much less eat them.   Other civilizations thought the mushroom could provide superhuman strength and could lead the souls of men to the land of the gods.   Louis XIV is thoug