West Coast Weather Vanes

We just finished a lovely Northern Pintail Duck Weathervane for customers in New Jersey. They just sent us photos of it installed on their new garage. Once the trees will in, the weather vane will stand out in beautiful contrast with the dark green background!

Our Phoenix is on fire this morning! Welcome 2024.

Just in from the Dominican Republic. We had the opportunity to work with a super wonderful customer who wanted a Landing Pelican Weathervane for the top of his Chapel. He had the cupola custom-made in France. What a beautiful place for one of our weathervanes to call home!

Our Phoenix Weathervane has been putting on quite a nice show this past month. First, we caught him galavanting with the full moon, and this morning, he was playing hide and seek with the rising mist. Truly, he is a magical bird!

Another fun project and a photo from our customer. This is a portrait weathervane of three beloved Dachshunds. Folks do love their Dachshunds, as this is the fourth portrait we have done! This "little puppy" now resides in Quebec, Canada, and is the second weathervane ordered by this very nice customer.

We've added optional gold and palladium to this design to create contrasts with the natural copper. Each dog has a collar and heart-shaped name tag with their names stamped on them.

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.

We just finished a fun project. It was a holiday gift from a wife to her husband. Over the years, he rowed for many clubs. To symbolize this, we used gold leaf on each oar to recreate the logo for each team for which he rowed. When the weathervane was completed, they came by our studio for a tour and to pick it up in person. We just got photos of it installed on their new cupola.

Happy Halloween from your friends at West Coast Weather Vanes.

Ken and I just walked up our driveway and saw a very beautiful image of our Phoenix Rising Weathervane juxtaposed against the Hunter's Moon. Even after 30 years, our weathervanes can still surprise and delight us!

The shop is a busy place right now. We've got a Beagle that was here for some surgery (he needed a new head after being dropped), a Moon with a Shooting Star that has been partially gilded, a Phoenix Weathervane, a Triple Dachshund. Weathervane going to Quebec, a Polo Horse headed for Brazil, a Coxed Four Person Racing Shell, and a 4-foot custom Feather Logo Weathervane (gilded but not yet detailed) going atop a water tower at a new distillery opening soon in Indiana.

We just finished a Running Stallion Weathervane for a customer who also owned a beautiful antique golden retriever weathervane. She wanted a contemporary piece that would complement her older one. The new one was intended for indoor display, and we just got photos of it mounted in its new home.

Here is the note accompanying the photos: Thank you for this beautiful piece… it is truly magnificent. I may let it have some sea air to add a bit of patina, but it truly fits in like it was made for my home.
The delivery and packing were impressive. Even my art hanger mentioned the care in which it was shipped. Well done!

Happy notes from our customers make our day. Here is one from a customer for whom we just finished a Personalize Large Hen & Four Chicks Weathervane.

She’s here🙌 Safe, sound and beautiful❣️she brought tears to my eyes when i saw her and felt all the care that was put into her. You are truly the most creative, unique, professional, caring, conscientious and patient merchant/team I have ever worked with. You have been a joy. Thank you🙏 I will send you a picture when She’s where she is meant to be❣️

We just heard from a wonderful customer in Pennsylvania. She commissioned a portrait version of our Umbrella Girl Weathervane to include a tribute to her beloved dog Newpsie. She posted a photo recently showing the patina that has been coming on since it was installed. I thought it looked beautiful and asked her permission to post it here. She was happy to let us post it and mentioned she may be coming to California on business next month. If so, we are going to try and arrange a studio tour for her. We rarely get to meet our customers so that would be a big treat for us!

We recently heard from a customer in New Hampshire. He sent us photos of his Buffalo Weathervane, which he mounted on a beautiful new barn. He went with an all-copper version of this weathervane with no glass eyes. He has promised to send us a photo once the copper has darkened. It would look even nicer once the dark brown patina has appeared.

It is not every day that we get orders here in our hometown. Most of the time, our customers come to us from elsewhere in the United States or even from around the world. But this customer lives here in Santa Cruz, so we actually got to see this customer's beautiful home in person.

As you might guess, this was a challenging installation, but the customer is pleased with both the installation and his new weathervane.

Here is what he had to say, "Just had my weathervane installed today and wanted to share some pictures and say how delighted I am with the result!"

Always a great way to start the day!

Some lovely photos just in from one of our customers. It was accompanied by this lovely note in response to my request for permission to post the photos she sent.

"I would be so happy and flattered if you posted it to your website and you can put my farm (The Silos Farm) name and/or Newnan, Ga or whatever you want on your picture! It doesn’t matter to me! It is SOOOO GORGEOUS I love that others will get to experience its beauty!"

A fun project just completed for customers in New Hampshire. One of our Loon & Chicks Weathervanes sits atop their beautiful new boathouse.

I know I've posted images of this Wine Bottle & Glasses Weather Vane before, but our customer keeps sending more and more beautiful images. I just had to share this view of the weathervane with a backdrop of the sunset over the Sierras.

We just got in a great new photo of "Fiona" from the Cincinnati Zoo. She is definitely roaring her approval of the nice kingdom she can survey from her perch atop the Zoo's recently renovated Carousel.

Just got photos in from a special project we wrapped up in January. In collaboration with the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens, we created a custom Hippo Weathervane for the top of their restored carousel. To do so, we modified our existing hippo to make its head tipped up higher and its jaws more widely opened.

This zoo is famous for Fiona, a six-week premature hippo born there in 2017. She is one of their most beloved denizens, so they wanted a weathervane created in her honor. For more on Fiona, here is a link.

We just finished up a beautiful new weathervane. It is a "portrait weathervane" of the customer's Olson Acoustic Guitar. We added gold and palladium leaf to match the accents on his guitar. He is opening a Beatle's themed golf course in Minnesota, and this weathervane will go atop a large circular tower. We can't wait to see photos of it once it has been installed.

To get the week off to a good start, I thought I would include some photos sent to us by a customer in coastal Oregon. They liked our Lion Rampant Weathervane but asked us to personalize it with a golden crown. In this photo, you can see how the copper has started its patina process. When in the dark brown phase, the copper stands out in vivid contrast with the optional gold leaf they choose for their weathervane.

Along the coast, they can get very strong winds, so we upgraded the stainless steel rod diameter and added some internal reinforcing to make it stronger. That is one of the nice things about having a weathervane made just for you; we can personalize and modify the vane and hardware to match your preferences and installation environment.

Trying to get some work done this morning, and I am not sure if my cat, Copper, is helping or not. Let's hope my Stack Cat does not collapse my stacking trays!

We just finished up a special project. A wonderful customer has ordered two weathervanes from us. The first one was a Dressage Horse for her daughter's barn. The second was for her other daughter and son-in-law. They have a beloved Great Dane, so we did a portrait weathervane of Saige. They sent us photos of her, and we used gold leaf to match her markings and made her with one blue eye and one brown eye. They plan to display it indoors in a recessed window.

The note that accompanied the final payment made my day. It said, "Thank you for what truly is the most gorgeous Saige Weathervane. ... It has been a great pleasure working with you and being a very proud recipient of your unique and precious art."

It's not often we get to see our own collection of weathervanes in the snow here in Bonny Doon! Fortunately, our Moon Goddess is, well, a Goddess so I don't think she is feeling the cold. Our Phoenix Rising also seems to be doing just fine, but our Red-Tailed Hawk is finding it rather heavy going!

Another busy day in the shop. Lots of weathervanes getting their final touches before heading off to their new homes. From left to right, we have a Soaring Seagull, a Bernese Mountain Dog, a Puget Sound Orca, a portrait Great Dane, and a medium and a large Armillary Sphere. The Armillary Spheres are headed for different homes - one has a traditional arrow fletching and the other one has a faceted star arrow fletching.

Old weathervanes are considered one of the best collectables. Good news for West Coast Weather Vane customers!

5 Antiques You Should Be Collecting Now (Before Everyone Else Does) Auction experts weigh in on why everything old is new again.

We just received some lovely photos from some lovely customers in coastal Massachusetts. The husband and kids went to Penn State, so when they built their new home with a garage and bonus room, a large (three-foot sculpture piece) Nittany Lion was the weathervane for them! We added a collar with their school colors.