This little guy dates all the way back to high school! My father made a number of different bird-shaped bird feeders like this one and I got roped into painting many of them. This particular one came back to me recently, so I thought I’d share it with you.

The bird feeder is made of wood with a clear plastic ball to hold the seed. I painted it using acrylic craft paints—the type that come in a bottle with a flip cap. Inexpensive but fine for this type of ‘craft’ project. It also has some sort of clear varnish coating. Possibly polyurethane, but I really don’t remember. Could be whatever “clear varnish” I had on hand from that went with the craft paints. I’d actually expect more yellowing by this point if it were polyurethane. Though really, on a yellow bird, it’s hard to tell if the coating has yellowed!

It’s not one of my favorites of the bird feeders I painted, I admit. But it’s an interesting look back at some of what I was working on at the time. I don’t remember the exact year, but I signed it with a nickname I used during high school, so I know it’s from the mid to late 90s. Originally it had a wooden seed tray—I’m not sure when or why it got changed out to the current PVC tray. It’s possible the original got chewed up by squirrels or something!

Do you have any “art” that you created long ago? How has your art changed since then? Do you work in a different style? Different mediums? Tell me in the comments!