Grand Rapids man crafts birdhouses from recycled Michigan barn wood
Grand Rapids, MI — Local birdhouse craftsman John Guertin isn’t competing with China.
He doesn’t want to. Through a love of all things nature, he’s developed a special process, collecting materials and assembling them in a way that, he believes, beats any mass-produced birdhouse or feeder coming from the Far East.
Guertin, 55, has spent the past 15 years creating new from old, prying boards from hundred-year-old Michigan barns and shaping them into Victorian-style birdhouses and newly added feeders for the business he created, Heart & Eagle Co. With occasional help from friends Chris Batchelder and Jim Davis, Guertin creates about 100 works a year with conservation in mind.
“It’s definitely a labor of passion,” Guertin said. “They are very unique, specialty items, but people who celebrate conservation and life through their gardens and properties are purchasing these items.”
Guertin has sold many of his pieces at local craft shows and fairs over the years but recently expanded into some local shops.