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Rustic Bird House Tree Ornaments

Dennis J Gooding

Dennis J Gooding

Beta Tester
Beta Tester
Joined
Apr 10, 2010
Messages
837
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Location
Grants Pass, Oregon
Well it’s Christmas season again. I always make a bunch of tree ornaments to give to friends and family. This year, I decided to try something a bit different: rustic miniature bird houses with natural perches, made from a green madrone sapling growing on my property. Here are the first four, shown on a five-minute concept to completion display stand, also from the same sapling.

IMG_6076e.jpg
 
While I'm here, how did you hollow the inside of the wood? Finish on the natural bark and turned wood? Have tons of wood that I can "copy" your designs. Some logs are big enough for a bald eagle. Thanks for sharing.
 
John, to hollow the body of the house, I used a Forstner bit held in a tailstock chuck, followed if necessary by a small round nose scraper. BTW, it may not be apparent in the photo, but all of the bird houses have a natural (branch stub) perch.
 
Dennis, thanks for the info. I see the built-in perches. Some were turned a bit. Again, very nice. Finish?
 
John, I wait a couple of days to get a bit of drying and then spray lightly with rattle can clear lacquer. This has held up well for me in the past on green-turned bark-edged madrone and manzanita vases. Also, when turning the narrow bark band on the roof, I wipe on a bit of thin CA glue at the edges of the cuts to bond the bark better to the wood.
 
Thanks again for your help. I was cleaning out the shop and saw some limbs that could be turned. No branches for perches, though.
 
Anyone interested in seeing some previous ornament designs can click on PHOTO GALLERY at the top of the page. A recent posting of mine will appear near the top of the Gallery display.
 
The mice are nice. Bet you even made the carousel stand, didn't you? Dennis, those are a challenge to all of us.
 
Dennis J Gooding said:
Anyone interested in seeing some previous ornament designs can click on PHOTO GALLERY at the top of the page. A recent posting of mine will appear near the top of the Gallery display.
Click to expand...

Your photo gallery pictures are just about to scroll off the first page. A better way to find your gallery images is to click on your name just below your avatar. A box will pop up and just click on Media Page or Albums Page (since you only have one album both media and albums will show the same set of thumbnails). This will show thumbnails of all your gallery images. Then just click on the desired thumbnail to see the full size image.
 
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