Cotinga Bird House
This is a bird house made from a stack of wooden blocks. Each block of wood has been shaped to have the book title along the "spine", and the rest of the edges shaped to look like the other three sides of the book. It is named after The Cotinga Foundation, a non-profit that trains special-needs teachers in developing countries. My sister started the Foundation, and I made the birdhouse as a retirement present for her.
6
Decor
Files Included (16)
Book Profile - Birds Text for 1 1-2 inch.svg
23 kBBook Profile - Cotinga Text for 1 1-2 inch.svg
24 kBBook Profile - Ecuador Text for 1 1-2 inch.svg
32 kBBook Profile - one and half inch.svg
11 kBBook Profile - one and inch.svg
10 kBBook Profile - open book left front.svg
9 kBBook Profile - Ornithology for 1 1-2 inch.svg
59 kBBook Profile - text for 1 inch.svg
24 kBBook Profile - three-fourths inch.svg
9 kBIMG_2693.jpg
4 MBIMG_2694.jpg
4 MBIMG_2695.jpg
3 MBIMG_2696.jpg
3 MBIMG_2731.jpg
3 MBIMG_2732.jpg
4 MBIMG_2788.jpg
3 MB
Materials
10" X 10" blocks of 1 1/2" pine
10" x 12" block of 3/4" pine
2 right triangles of wood, 10" on the longest side
pine scraps for the pages of the top "book"
2 squares of 1/4" plywood for the top book cover
10" x 2" x 2" top piece for the top book binding.
various colors of spray paint for the books
craft paint for the lettering
white latex caulk
clear semi-gloss spray top coat paint
Tools
Shaper Origin
Drill press
Miter saw
Table saw
Instructions
It would be very hard to provide step by step instructions for this project. Each "book" is a separate block of wood. The very bottom one is 3/4" pine, and the others are 1 1/2" pine. The .svg files will show you how I created the profile on the sides of the "books" so they look like a book binding, and the bound edge of the books where the lettering is. After I had routed the side profile and lettering, I ran the bound edge of the books through a router table with a round-over bit to give the bound edge a rounded over appearance. After I created the five books, I painted them all separately, including the lettering on the Titles. I used colored spray paint to paint each of the books. Then I used a small brush to fill in the letters with paint. Then to paint the part that was meant to be white paper, I taped off the inside edges of the book with masking tape, and painted the "paper" with a small brush. The yellow "book" was intentionally bigger than the others and became the bottom of the bird house. On each of the "books" that were to go above that, I cut a square shape in the middle of the book using a skill saw, to create the hollow spot for the bird house. I stacked the "books" intentionally crooked so they looked like an uneven stack of books. Once all the hollow spot were cut, I stacked the books, and connected them using glue and screws. The top most red book was made of two triangles (in black), with the white "pages" (cut with the Shaper) glued to the front of the triangles. Then the red covers of the book where glued to the sides the triangles, and the top piece (the "book binding" was glued on top. There were visible seams where the pieces on the book that made up the roof were glued together. To make those less noticable, I filled them with white caulk. Once everything was together, I gave it a couple coats of clear spray paint. This had the effect of making everything have the same amount of shine, and make a lot of the imperfections and corrections on the painted letters much less noticeable. It did not come out perfect, but I am still very happy with it. I have never made any other sort of project like it, and it was an interesting challenge to plan out and execute.