From the Partridge Family and the Flintstones to a Tay firetruck and even the SS Keewatin, Darren Putnam has seemingly covered them all.
The amicable Port McNicoll man has taken the humble birdhouse to new heights with his own takes on cultural touchstones and nostalgic memories like the aforementioned Flintstone's inspired model.
Creating these neat and functional pieces of art in his “little shop downstairs,” Putnam regularly gets requests for specific subjects, but prefers to march to his own creative drummer.
“A few years ago, I started building them just to put in my yard, and they were just simple boxes,” Putnam explained during an interview with MidlandToday.
“And then I changed it up a little bit and thought I'm going to make one look like this or I'm going to make one look like that. And then it became a challenge for me.”
Having recently retired from his job at Penetanguishene’s Magna Techform and with many COVID-19 restrictions in place, Putnam took his creations to the next level.
“This winter with the lockdowns, I got lots of material and I just went nuts and made a whole bunch of them,” says Putnam, who estimates he constructed 60 birdhouses during the most recent lockdown.
And like any artist, Putnam doesn’t like to repeat his designs, which have to be something he wants to create.
“I don't take requests or anything like that,” he says, noting someone might try to commission a lighthouse and may not like what he’s created so he wants to maintain his artistic freedom.
“I'm not being cruel or anything, I just like to do my thing. And I enjoy the challenges.”
As well, there’s a limit on how many of a particular model he will complete.
“Like after I built the Flintstone house, everybody wants a Flintstone house now, but I only made three of them. And I'm not gonna make anymore. I want to move on to something else.”
Similar story when he created the Starship Enterprise from the cult TV series Star Trek.
"Everybody wants one of those so I made three of them. And now I'm not going to make any more.”
Fire trucks are also popular items, but there are so many variations with styles and age that Putnam doesn’t cap the limit.
“I can make a modern one or an old one, right? I can play around with them a little bit so I don’t mind doing repeats of those because they're all different.”
In the last couple of years, Putnam estimates he’s made well over 500 birdhouses and has also tried his hand at building Muskoka chairs after a neighbour said she wanted one with a skull on it.
“So I call it the Muskullka chair,” he jokes. “I cut the whole back so it’s like a big skull.”
When he first started, he would give them away, but now he usually charges about $25 for each creation, which people have noted is a real bargain since one man told him they could easily sell for $80 to $100 each.
Putnam would eventually like to be involved with selling them at the annual Portarama family festival and perhaps, a farmer’s market.
And nowadays if the Saturday forecast is pleasant and cooperates, Putnam will sometimes place some of his creations on a table at the end of his driveway.
“I'm not in it to make money. In fact, with some of them I lose money when I sell them with the time and material together,” Putnam says, noting some of the more complicated designs can take up to eight hours of craftsmanship.
There is one exception on his pricing rule, however.
“I only have one one that I really want to keep, but I keep putting it out there and I put a price tag of $100 on it,” he says, noting this particular birdhouse evokes childhood memories since it’s modelled after a tow-truck once driven by his uncle.”
And his wife Debbie Durkee also enjoys seeing the creations.
“She’s on board with it,” Putnam says. “Sometimes, she’ll say ‘I can’t believe he made that’ or she just walks by and goes, ‘yeah, that’s cool.’ She likes the idea that I keep challenging myself and building something different all the time.”
Putnam also displays his compassion and sense of humour when he recounts the time an older lady came by and asked how much one of the houses was.
“She was a senior," he recalls "And she was looking at them. She wasn’t into the themed one, but she asked how much it was for a simple birdhouse that she really liked.
“I told her $10. I could tell she knew the value of a dollar and I said, ‘but because it's a sunny day today, you get it for $5.’ She replied, 'I’ll take two of them then.’ I laughed.”
Putnam says he also enjoys the social aspect that comes when people stop by to look at his creations
“It's really refreshing to run into people that have positive things to say,” he adds. “You know what? That just keeps me going with these things.”
But the houses aren’t just pretty to look at. They’re also practical and feature aluminum roofs that help incubate the little birds.
“They have to be functional and not just bolted in a backyard as if to say, ‘that’s cool.’ Every single one that I've ever put up, has had a family in it in June,” he says, noting house wrens and purple martins are two particular species that really seem to like his designs.
“And I get another family about the end of July so when one family moves out after their babies are born, another moves in.
“And we can sit out on the deck and watch them. And you can tell when the babies are born because mama flies away with the egg shells.”
