A BUSINESS THAT'S FOR THE BIRDS

Between jobs and school-age children involved in soccer and football games, dance classes and Brownies, sisters-in-law Brenda and Mary Beth Fluegge decided they needed a hobby.

They came up with an unusual one: making birdhouses. Not just any birdhouses, though, but rustic-looking creations made from the bark of hemlock and poplar, with curled handles fashioned from jack pine. The woods are imported from the Appalachian Mountains.

The partners will be among an estimated 800 crafters who will be set up to sell their wares in four different Cape Girardeau locations this weekend. (See related story.)

Before becoming involved in their hobby, both women had bought similar birdhouses for their own yards.

"Our friends and neighbors would just love them," Mary Beth said.

"They'd say, 'Did you make that?' I'd say, 'No but I could,'" Brenda chimed in.

"The next thing I knew we were in the birdhouse business," Mary Beth concluded.

The positive response at their first craft show convinced them that business could be good.

They go to Appalachia to get hemlock, which is more difficult to find in Missouri, because the reddish bark looks good on the roofs of their houses. They bring it back in a trailer, along with moss used as decoration.

Most of the wood comes from waste slabs the sawmill ordinarily would burn. The bases are made from pieces of pallets. "It's all scrap wood," Brenda says.

Though many people use the finished creations as indoor decorative pieces, the birdhouses are designed to be used and contain no glue. They also can be opened for cleaning.

The houses come in more than 20 designs that have been home to all kinds of birds. They even make a nine-holer for the convivial purple martins.

In warm weather, they work on them usually two nights a week in the workshop behind the house in Tilsit Brenda shares with her husband, Dave, and their children, Leni, Erin and Sarah. Mary Beth lives in Cape Girardeau with her husband, Mark, and children, Merritt and Jordan.

Lately, the sisters-in-law also have begun making colorful glass plates and platters. They are covered with beautifully designed cloth and then sealed using a process Brenda figured out through trial and error.

The plates can be ordered to match someone's napkins or kitchen curtains.

What started out as a hobby almost has grown into a part-time job in just a year. Their birdhouses are sold by a number of florists and nurseries in the area. At craft shows, they sell for $10 to $48.

The plates, which take a long time to make because they must dry three different times, sell for $15. The platters are $25.

They enjoy the work involved, but on the eve of the Arts Council's big craft show at the Show Me Center there are still plates to be made.

"It was supposed to be a fun little thing," says Mary Beth. "It's gotten out of hand."