April 30, 2009

Spring time is for the birds



Just so you are not confused this is a real life birdhouse, not a birdhouse for a dollhouse. I love creating small architectural objects and build them for a number of functions.

Every now and again I will raid the piles of accumulated materials I have gathered and build something. I made this Victorian inspired A frame, chickadee sized birdhouse a few years ago. I used Vermont Green slate roof shingles, a copper pipe for the ridge with a brass stamped cap shaped piece for the ends of the pipe. The green patina solution I put on the copper and brass looks to be a close match in color with the green of the slate. Cutting the slot in the copper pipe to fit over the shingles was the scary part. It was done on a 10 inch table saw, I had to hold the copper pipe in a custom fixture I built.

The walls are made from salvaged tongue and groove boards from a old house I used to live in. I decided to shape the ends of the boards into triangles to repeat the overall shape of the house. The rest of the wood pieces I cut from cedar except for the little dentil molding. That was a dollhouse molding I had sitting around. I gave all the wood a finish of semi-transparent white oil based stain.

It was a rather whimsical and fun project to build and sold just about as soon as it reached the gallery.

Maybe someday I will recreate it as a birdhouse for a dollhouse in 1:12 scale.

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