About the Artist and Our Products

Carol in the garden with custom bird feeder Carol Garringer has worked extensively in a variety of media over the past 35 years, including fiber arts, wood and mosaics. Her birdhouse and bird feeder work combine her aptitude for woodworking with her life-long love of birds. The Iowa farm where she was raised was on a major bird migratory route, so she became familiar not only with the resident Midwestern birds but also with the many transient species that passed through every spring and fall. Her business is based in Oregon, where she has lived since 1977. She enjoys the wide variety of birds that frequent her organic garden in Eugene.

One of Carol's birdhouses is featured on page 258 in the current edition of Sunset's Western Landscaping book, and her work is found in gardens throughout the United States. It has been exhibited at the Eugene Public Library and also the gallery exhibit "For the Birds" at the Mahlon Sweet Airport in Eugene.

Where to Find Our Products

In addition to this website, you can find our products at:

Our products are also sold every year at several Eugene area events:

 

About the Process

Carol builds a rustic style bird house in her basement workshop Carol is an avid recycler and proponent of repurposing, the art of combining salvaged materials into new, functional objects. In her spare time she can be frequently found roaming the aisles of her local recycling station, salvage businesses and thrift stores, searching for used materials for her unique creations: old lighting fixtures, chandelier parts, cabinet hardware, electrical wire, even cookware lids. She gathers wood scraps from a fencing company's kindling box and twigs from her own garden. Neighbors drop off paint and trim left over from their remodeling projects. Her basement shop is stuffed with bins of cast-off items awaiting their future transformation.

 

Then the fun begins as Carol combines these disparate materials to make her unusual birdhouses and feeders, always keeping the needs of the birds in mind. Her decorative yet functional birdhouses and feeders are designed to please the birds and gardeners alike. Each birdhouse is carefully constructed to suit specific types of cavity-nesting birds, and all feature air vents, drainage holes and removable clean-out sections. The interior dimensions and entry holes are appropriately sized for specific cavity-dwelling birds.

She also does custom work, including birdhouse replicas of gardeners' homes.

These quality houses and feeders will last for years in the garden, and since each is handmade using mostly recycled materials, even the individual examples of her standard models are unique. All are signed and numbered by Carol.

At the end of the creative process, the unusable metal parts go to a scrap yard. Small wood scraps are given to a friend who heats his home with a wood stove, and the cedar sawdust is placed around the blueberry bushes in Carol's garden.