Just like snowflakes, no two bird houses are exactly the same.
Our story
In 1999 Janice took a tour on the Napa Valley Wine Train and the gift shop at the terminal. In the shop she noticed a birdhouse that had been covered in corks from Napa Valley vineyards. Not long after, she made her first cork birdhouse ornament. Friends and neighbors saw the cork birdhouse ornament and asked Janice to make one for them. This continued with Janice making a few each year until 2022 when her daughter-in-law suggested she open an Etsy shop. Rather than do an Etsy shop she decided to make cork bird house ornaments decorated for Christmas for local vineyards using their corks. Then her daughter suggested she make bird house ornaments for Christmas Markets around Northern Virginia. Hence: A Hobby Gone Wild.
We hope you enjoy our cork birdhouse ornaments as much as we do!
-Janice & Gary
Tiny house. Tiny tools.
We use (mini) table saws to cut each cork! It takes 5 cutes to make two pieces of “lumber”. This is a huge upgrade from the earliest ornaments when Janice cut all of the corks by hand with steak knives. Check out these videos of our saw master in action.
Assembly continues with each section of cork and decoration being hand placed.
The little cork shavings from the saw are used to! Can you see them on the houses?