Click to enlarge photos.
By Donna Harris
Cherokee Tribune Staff Writer
David Boone has built 44,000 birdhouses over the past two decades, and no two of them have been exactly alike.
"That's a conservative estimate," the Ball Ground artist said. "I just took my yearly income and average sales and divided it. I know it's more birdhouses than that. I sell lots of these little guys."
Boone, 46, creates unique, functional houses out of western red cedar, copper and brass for bluebirds, chickadees, wrens and titmice. The houses, which meet the National Audubon Society's specifications for each type of bird, have back doors for cleaning out old nests, ventilation holes, entry holes of different sizes and mounting poles of varying heights.
And after a few years outside, the birdhouses "age gracefully," with the cedar turning a silvery gray and the copper turning a verdigris green, Boone said.
The Atlanta native, who has lived in Cherokee County since he was 9, even created a new style of birdhouse - a bluebird box that is tapered at the bottom.
"This look had never been done before," he said. "It's my hallmark piece."
Boone built his first birdhouse, a bluebird box, when he was a Cub Scout, but it failed to attract a bluebird. "It had a titmouse in it," he said. "To this day, the titmouse is my favorite bird."
He made a few birdhouses for friends and family members but wasn't really inspired to make a career of it at that point.
"They looked like government-issue birdhouses," he said. "I made them just because I needed gifts for people."
In the 1980s, he went to work in the printing department at Trans Designs in Canton and met his future wife, Julie, while working there.
They developed an interest in the fine papers used in art reproduction and eventually started their own business, producing handmade papers.
But papermaking was very labor-intensive, and the market for it varied with the state of the economy so the couple, who have a 19-year-old son, Zac, had some hard times.
One day, Boone saw an image in his head of a tapered birdhouse with an embossed copper roof, and he went home to build with his hands what he saw in his mind.
"The first one looked rough, but I knew I had the right idea," he said. "I asked my folks and asked Julie, and their first impressions were good ones. I knew I could refine it and get it right."
He credited his uncle, Fred Peterson, with whom he built log cabins when he was teenager, for teaching him to think outside the box.
"That man showed me how you don't have to follow the rules (of building)," he said, noting he'll do things such as put a door on a corner. "There were no rules for him, and that was what I wanted for myself."
Boone then began cranking out birdhouses "14 hours a day, seven days a week" and started selling them at fine arts and crafts shows across the country.
"The first five or six shows, I sold out," he said. "I sold everything I could make."
During the next few years, he was selling 2,000 to 3,000 houses a year, but "the best year I ever had (either 1994 or 1995), I sold 4,500 birdhouses," he said.
With their paper business struggling, Boone said he got the kick in the pants he needed to turn his hobby into a business from Lt. Col. Jack McClain, a military pilot he'd met. "He said, 'Just do it,'" Boone said. "He had seen my birdhouses and said, 'You're piddling around, wasting time. Get with it.'"
After four years of making paper and 10 years on the show circuit, the couple built a garden gallery on 18 acres just north of Ball Ground and named it Wildcat on a Wing for a cabin Mrs. Boone's father left her on Wildcat Creek and for starting a business "on a wing and a prayer."
"Lots of prayers were answered," Boone said, noting they also have their home and a separate workshop/studio, Wildcat Works, on the property. "No way, with what I've gone through in my life, should I be as blessed as I am. I give (God) credit."
The shop, which celebrated its ninth anniversary May 1, features Boone's birdhouses and feeders as well as his copper wind directionals, which he makes when he has time.
The houses, which will last 15 to 20 years, range from $85 to $800, with the average being about $110. The directionals cost anywhere from $250 to $600.
Wildcat also sells works like pottery, jewelry, home décor, furniture and lamps made by more than 100 artists from across the country.
Boone continues to sell his houses at 12 to 14 shows a year in places like Colorado, Texas and Chicago, and he also finds artists who have "work you don't see in Georgia" to feature in the shop.
"I learned not to invest too much of your business into one thing," he said. "You have to diversify a little bit."
Diversifying also has allowed Boone to slow down and enjoy life a little more.
"I used to have to make birdhouses and sell them like crazy to make a living," he said. "Now the pressure's off, and I can make them because I enjoy it. My life is good."
dharris@cherokeetribune.com
Comment on this Story
Posted Comments