“After forty-two years, I’m closing my workshop.” – Judy Niemi (67) is selling her last garden owls at a closeout price. Her most popular design is retiring with her.
In a converted garage in northern Minnesota, Judy Niemi built garden lights by hand for almost four decades — every one a small piece of work. Now the 67-year-old is putting down the brush, and she is going out with her biggest success: the EmberOwl. Why is this glowing little bird suddenly so sought after? Because this is the last time it will ever be offered.
Judy Niemi (67) in her workshop outside Ely, Minnesota. After forty-two years she is closing her life’s work.
ELY, Minn. — The little workshop smells of metal, paint and cold coffee. Owls sit on the shelves, some still bare, others finished with fine dark lines in the feathers. On the long bench stand half-done birds, brushes, stencils and small solar heads. Judy Niemi leans over one of her last figures, the way she has since 1984. But this year is different. It is her last winter.
“I’m sixty-seven,” she says quietly. “My hands don’t keep up anymore. The joints ache and it gets worse every year.” She runs a thumb across her fingers — decades of fine work have left their mark. “But that’s not the only reason. The world changed. Hardly anybody pays for real handwork now. It all comes out of a factory. My way of working is quietly disappearing.”
Forty-two years, more than seventeen thousand owls
Judy counted them. In forty-two years she cut, coated and hand-painted 17,406 garden owls, every one of them through her own hands, written down in four ninety-nine-cent notebooks.
“At the start they were plain metal figures for the flower bed,” she says. “Then people came and wanted something special — something with a face, something that looks back at you. That is how my lighted owl came about. First as a figure, later as the EmberOwl with the solar head.”
She wakes, looks around, and settles again. A few seconds, and then she is still.
What makes Judy’s owls so different
It is not only the friendly face. It is the three-layer build she learned in 1986 from Wendell Skaar, an old decoy painter near Tower, and refined over the decades — a way of working almost nobody still knows.
The three-layer build: inside sits a solid metal body with precise cut-outs for the eyes and the feather channels. Over that goes a weatherproof coat that holds off rain, snow and sun. On the outside Judy lays in the fine shading and the contours by hand. Inside the EmberOwl sits a quality solar module with a warm-white LED, a dusk sensor and a small motion unit. That combination is why she lights up reliably every evening — and why she holds up through years of weather, while a lot of cheap solar lamps give out after one season.
Every brushstroke sits where it belongs. After forty-two years Judy knows every step in her sleep.
“I have customers whose owls have been out there for eleven winters”
Judy pulls a wooden box out from under the bench. Inside are hundreds of letters and cards from customers, some writing to her for decades. She takes one out, dated 2011: “Dear Mrs Niemi, your owl has been with us for years now. She stands out there summer and winter and still looks like she did on the first day.”
The reason is simple: quality instead of quantity. Where a factory builds for speed and thin material, Judy works in small batches, and every bird goes through her hands three times before it leaves the shop.
Her last collection, while there is still something on the shelf:
See Judy’s EmberOwlCheck price and availabilityThe end of an era — and one last chance
At the end of the month Judy closes her workshop for good. “I have no successor. Nobody wants to learn this trade now — it takes years before you really have it.” On the shelves there are still just over six hundred garden owls. Her life’s work. The last collection that will ever pass through her hands.
To get them into good hands before spring, she has done something unusual: a real closeout price on every owl. “It isn’t about the money anymore. I want them to end up in gardens where somebody actually appreciates them, with people who understand what goes into a piece like this,” she says. Her daughter Kim handles the selling online. “I paint, she does the computer. At my age I don’t know the first thing about all that.”
Kim also came up with the name. She walked into the dark workshop one evening and found one still lit at the back of the bench, the light glowing up through the hollow stump like the last embers of a fire. EmberOwl. The name stuck — and it is more or less what she does in a garden: a small warm light that comes on by itself when the sun goes down.
Shelves of blanks, brushes and finished owls — the result of forty-two years of work.
What sets Judy’s EmberOwl apart
Six things you only get from her bench
- 100% handwork. Every owl is prepared, finished and checked one at a time. No production line, no two exactly alike.
- Built-in movement. A small unit inside turns her head and lifts her wings when something crosses the yard, so she looks alive out there instead of frozen.
- Made to stay outside. Solid body, sealed surface, IP65 against rain, snow, frost and sleet — built in a town that gets to thirty below.
- Solar with dusk automatic. The solar head charges through the day and switches the warm-white LED on by itself as it gets dark. Nothing to plug in, nothing to switch.
- All year round. Garden, border, patio, balcony or front step. Decoration in summer, a warm point of light through the winter.
- Limited. Just over six hundred EmberOwls from Judy’s final collection — once they are gone, there will be no new ones.
What people are saying
What real customers say about the EmberOwl
“I never thought a garden owl could change the whole feel of a yard. In the evening when she comes on and the wings move a little, the place looks enchanted. We check on her every night before bed now.”
Cheryl A., Fort Wayne IN
“I work a lot and I am rarely home in daylight. Since the EmberOwl has been on my front step I actually look forward to the moment she switches on. Warm light, gentle movement — none of that harsh blinking you get from the cheap ones.”
Bonnie R., Rochester MN
“My grandson took to her right away. He calls her the night watchman. Every evening he runs to the window to see whether she is lit up yet and whether she moves. You can tell how much care went into her.”
Meredith K., Dayton OH
Help her empty the shelves before the end of the month:
See What’s LeftCheck availability“The perfect gift for people you really love”
What makes the EmberOwl a special gift is not only the workmanship. It is the story behind it. “When you give somebody this owl, you give them a piece of real handwork. A little light for the garden — and something there will never be again,” Judy says.
A customer in Portland gave one to her mother and got a phone call the first night it was dark enough for the light to come on. “She had been sitting at the window waiting for it,” she wrote. “She is seventy-nine years old and she waited at a window.”
Ten seconds after the box came open.
Where can you buy Judy’s garden owl?
Judy’s owls are sold in one place only: through Backroad Goods, the small online shop Kim built for her mother. Every owl listed there came off the bench in that garage outside Ely and was finished by Judy’s own hand.
Only this season — then it is over
Judy closes her workshop for good at the end of the month. “Until then I would like to see every owl go to a good home,” she says quietly, and smiles. “Forty-two years. It was a good run.”
Between the closeout price and the rush before the holidays, the shelf is not expected to hold out long — and it is the last chance to put a piece of real handwork in your own garden.
Warm white, never blue. Most people do not stop at one.
In closing
The EmberOwl is the kind of garden piece people end up loving. Made entirely by hand, warm light and gentle movement that make an evening feel cozier the moment she comes on — and a small moment of magic every time she switches herself on. Thank you, Judy. 🦉
Try one in your own garden, risk-free
With the 100% money-back guarantee you take no risk at all. Put her in the ground and give her a few evenings in your own garden. If she does not delight you, you get your money back. “I have had four come back in forty-two years,” Judy says, laughing. “Two of those were the wrong address.”
Judy’s final collection — limited quantity:
Secure Your EmberOwlCloseout price · 30-day guaranteeFrom gardens all over the country
The internet loves the EmberOwl
“It makes me sad that craftswomen like this are disappearing and hardly anybody values the work. I ordered two right away — one for our yard, one for my parents. All of us are delighted, especially in the evening when she lights up and moves.”— The Novak family, Green Bay WI
“I love the expression on her face — she looks properly alive. And the warm white light is so cozy, none of that harsh LED flicker. The EmberOwl is our little evening ritual now.”— Laura S., Columbus OH
Note: this article is a sponsored post and contains advertising. The owner of this website has a financial relationship with the product promoted here and is compensated for purchases made through the links on this page. Each owl is finished by hand, so no two are exactly alike and photographs show representative examples. Run time varies with season and available direct sunlight. Full shipping, returns and payment terms are shown on the product page.