Custom copper weathervanes are a specialty at West Coast Weather Vanes. We offer over 700 custom weathervane designs at our website www.westcoastweathervanes.com. Please visit our website to learn more about our copper weathervanes and commissioning new weathervane designs.
We recently received some nice photos of our Standing Donkey weathervane from a customer in Southern California. They built a new 900 square foot barn with a steeply pitched roof and cupola. They selected the Standing Donkey weather vane in part because of the book, “Sylvester & The Magic Pebble by William Steig (for which he won a 1970 Caldecott Medal). It was their daughter’s favorite book.
It was commissioned to go atop the Silver Beach Carousel Society’s new Carousel in St. Joseph, Michigan. While it can be made as an all copper weathervane (see drawing), we are adding optional gold leaf and palladium leaf to make it truly extraordinary (see drawing).
The horse has translucent glass jewels for its eyes and in its armor. I’ve enclosed several photos of this weathervane as it was being made so you can get a feel for the artistry that goes into such a weathervane’s construction. When the gilding is done I will post some more photos.
Because of the complexity of this project, two of our senior journeyman weathervane makers worked on the Carousel Horse's construction. Here is a photo of Victor shaping one of the horse's legs.
Here are the two halves of the horse's head. The hand shaping of a weathervane is where a true master of the craft can showcase his or her skills. All this shaping is done with rawhide hammers over oak posts. No molds are used. Because of this, no two weathervanes, even when made by the same craftsman, will ever be exactly alike.
Thomas had the task of making the horse's armor. Here you can see several of the pieces he has completed. There are individual glass jewels of different colors ornamenting the armor.
In this photo, Thomas is fitting pieces of armor to the horse's body. In this photo you can see the different colored glass jewels more clearly.
This final photo in the sequence shows Thomas and Victor with the completed carousel horse weathervane. The next step will be to polish it and start adding the gold and palladium leaf. I'll be sure and post photos once that process is completed.
When I first read this story, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Perhaps it will get you thinking too. I don’t have an attribution for it but the Washington Post is cited in the article.
Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007.The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.During that time approximately two thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.
4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.
6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.
45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money, but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.
1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world.
He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days earlier, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.
The questions raised:
1. In an unexpected environment, can we perceive beauty?
2. Do we stop to appreciate it?
3. Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made . . . How many other things are we missing?
Welcome to our West Coast Weather Vanes blog. My name is LizAnne Jensen, and together with my husband, Ken, have been creating custom copper weathervanes for over 21 years. This blog will showcase some of our latest designs, share photos of our weathervanes on some of our customer's homes and businesses and share other interesting weathervane facts, stories and observations.
