Make a Hanging Teacup Bird Feeder

Make a Hanging Teacup Bird Feeder
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How To Make A Bird Feeder



This is a simple but beautiful project.
Rated -- Easy for beginners.

You’ll need:

Materials List:

  • 1 porcelain teacup and saucer
  • 3 pull chains for ceiling fans or lights
  • 3' of additional lamp/fan chain cut into 3--1' pieces
  • 3 chain couplings (ours came with the fan/lamp pulls)
  • 1 small (1" X 1") piece of landscape fabric or fiberglass window screen
  • 1 small piece of wire (we used about 2" of picture hanging wire
  • 1 hanging plant hook
  • Optional: Colored beads

    Tools List:

    • 1 tube of glue for glass and tile (We used E-6000)
    • 1 1/4” diamond core bit or a 1/4" diamond core bit for Dremel tools
    • 1 electricians dykes or wire cutters
    • 1 drill, drill press or rotary tool (such as Dremel)


    This teacup bird feeder project is extremely easy to make. You can use teacups, coffee cups or soup cups. We found quite an assortment at garage sales, flea markets and local thrift shops. This teacup and saucer came from a local Goodwill thrift store.

    We chose a teacup and saucer that complemented each other, but were not a matched set. You can also choose a plain white, off white or solid pastel colored teacup to use as your “blank canvas”. Then you can decorate it with beads, paint or stencils. This is your creation. LET'S GET STARTED....

    1) Drill a 1/4" hole in the center of the teacup and the saucer. They don't have to align exactly, but drill both holes near the center. These will allow rainwater to drain out of the teacup without having to manually turn it over to empty it. Next drill 3 equally spaced 1/4" holes near the outside edge of the saucer. We drilled ours about 3/8" from the edge. When we tried to drill closer to the edge we broke the saucer.

    When drilling with small diamond core bits remember to:

    • Use a slow drill speed of 1500-2500 RPM
    • Use light drill pressure
    • Keep the drill bit and the glass wet


    2) Next, glue the teacup and saucer together. Line up the center drilled drainage holes as closely as possible.

    3) After the glue has dried and the cup and saucer can be handled as one piece, do any painting, or embellishment that you want to do.

    3) Glue a small scrap of window screen or landscape fabric in the bottom of the cup to prevent the bird seed from falling through and drainage hole. Be careful not to clog the drain hole with glue

    4) Thread the fan/light pull chains through the 3 holes at the outer edge of the saucer. Use chain couplings to add the additional foot of chain to each pull. Optional: We strung a couple of blue and clear beads between the fan pull and the saucer. Simply as decoration.

    5) Use the small piece of wire to wrap and tie the loose ends of the 3 chains together.

    6) slip the tied ends of the chain over a plant hook. Hang from a tree limb and fill with bird seed.

    You're done!!!!

    We saw a great idea on the HomeTalk website (www.hometalk.com). They suggested using inexpensive shower curtain hangers instead of plant hooks, They are much cheaper. Great idea!

    If you have original artwork or craft project, we'd love to feature it (and you) on our website and blog. Please email a short description of what you do, how you do it and a few pictures or video. We can only publish pictures and descriptions of original work
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