Me and Michelangelo

I purchased a birdseed feeder at Michael's Craft Store for a mere $4.00. An additional $2.00 bought me 4 colors of paint. My project was to paint a bird feeder for the feathered flock who give me such enjoyment while I to win the germ wars. Really--if Michelangelo could paint the entire Sistine Chapel on his back surely I could manage a very small bird feeder on mine!

I am not a talented person when it comes to painting anything. What colors should go where? These birds were too important to have anything haphazardly thrown together and hung in a tree.

Fortunately it's the digital camera age so I took a pic of the "raw" feeder and then tried out various color combinations by painting it in Photoshop. That used up the better part of a day--what with generous breaks for resting and thinking.

What about something more complicated? What about a multi-colored roof? A few clicks with 'select' and empty the paint bucket and voila! New roofs.(Was it ever rooves??)

This is awful--a wooden imitation of Big Yellow Bird in a party hat!

Just doesn't quite please the eye. I know! If a roof can be two colors, would three be even better?? This is a mere 3 click switch for Photoshop.

Okay--now we're getting closer. Patience all used up. Time to get the paint out and make a mess. One of these is bound to work out.

I finally decided on the least offensive color combinations and with a little--well, with a lot of scotch tape to mark off non-painted areas, 4 cheap paintbrushes that shed hairs all over everything and a Labradoodle who did not like being displaced on the bed, I began the Great Painting Project

It didn't take me long to realize that great hunks of the cheap paint brush hair needed trimming off every 5 dips or so. One color at a time, paint squeezed onto the back of a magazine, birdhouse held up above my head, and the painting began.

First stage

Yeah--this is coming along. So what it's taken about 4 hours so far. The birds will love it.

Did Michelangelo feel the same thrill at nearing the end of a strenuous project?

AND AT LAST! The bird feeder is finished. Two coats of paint and a final coating of polyurethane produces the finished product of a day's work. This ought to keep them out of the back yard for a week!