MUSICIAN WEATHERVANE

This Boy Playing his Pipe for a Singing Bird weathervane was the result of a commission from customers who saw a similar weathervane on their travels in Europe. While this weather vane could certainly be made as a swell bodied weathervane, they opted for a silhouette style weather vane to more closely resemble the original. To see the difference in the two styles, see the two versions of the Girl with Umbrella weathervane design to the right of the Piper and Bird weather vane. We made it for them in the medium size (two-foot sculpture piece).

We also added optional gold leaf to help emphasize his flute or pipe and the singing bird. The gold leaf also helped define the strap as it crossed the boy’s body. In the silhouette version, both the bird and the boy have cut out eyes, but in the swell bodied version the boy and the bird would have translucent glass jewels for eyes.

A swell bodied weather has dimension, meaning it is made of two separate hand-shaped pieces of copper which are soldered together, leaving a hollow interior. However, this style weathervane is intentionally not fully 3-D. The reason for this is so that it will be aerodynamic in the wind. The “fatter” the weathervane, the more it will resist the wind. Ideally, when designing a weathervane you want the wind to cut it like a knife, hence the silhouette or swell-bodied sculptural style. The sculpture piece is also offset over the pivot point, with more surface area to the down wind side. This allows the wind to “push” the sculpture piece so the narrow part of it faces into the wind which, in turn, again reducing its resistance.  If you are interested in the swell-bodied version, please give us a call at (800.762.8736) or (831) 425.5505.

They were kind enough to send us a photo of the new weathervane atop their home in Washington State.

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening. A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, a flutist, or less commonly a fluter. Flutes are the earliest known musical instruments. A number of flutes dating to about 40,000 to 35,000 years ago have been found in the Swabian Alb region of Germany. These flutes demonstrate that a developed musical tradition existed from the earliest period of modern human presence in Europe.

• Essay on the Jiahu flutes from the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art A selection of historic flutes from around the world at

• Walking Stick Flute and Oboe, Georg Henrich Scherer, Butzbach, ca. 1750–57

• New flutes document the earliest musical tradition in southwestern Germany

• Flute at the Open Directory Project