Weathervanes

THE STORY OF WEST COAST WEATHER VANES...

Ken & LizAnn Jensen Proprietors of West Coast Weather Vanes

During the autumn  of 1988, Ken and I were on our honeymoon in New England where we had gone to see the fall colors. While we were admiring the beautiful scenery, we spotted a roadside shop selling copper weather vanes. We had always admired weather vanes but had been unable to find one in California. They had a nice selection so we ordered one and arranged to have it shipped back home to us. We mentioned how much trouble we had finding an interesting weather vane and the fellow casually mentioned that there was no one in the western half of the country making handmade copper weather vanes. Ninety miles down the road, we had a brainstorm. Why not create these fine examples of American folk art ourselves?

For a year and a half, we saved our money and researched everything we could find on weather vanes. We became more and more fascinated with the history and lore that surrounds them. Our first weather vane was a Humpback Whale. In addition to designs with universal appeal, we wanted to create weather vanes relevant to residents in the western half of the country, such as quail, elk, sea otters, etc. We experimented with non-traditional subject matter and materials such as brass, German silver and glass. We also experimented with multiple sized vanes and unusual locations in which to situate a weather vane, such as a deck railing, garden or even in a pond!

Today our studio is located in the forested mountains of Central California and we are one of only a handful of artists anywhere in the world producing handcrafted copper weather vanes. Our specialty is doing custom design work and portrait weather vanes. We use the difficult "free form" and "repoussé" techniques to create these high quality sculptures. No molds are used so each piece is slightly different from any others that we make. Because each one is finely crafted and completely unique, they will very probably become collector's items that should increase in value as they age and acquire their lovely and distinctive greenish patina.

West Coast Weather Vanes' rapidly expanding line currently includes over 600 different designs ranging from aquatic to animal, bird, human, mythological and transportation related designs. The diversity of work, new technical challenges and variety of customers with whom we have worked keeps our interest and enthusiasm high. We are currently celebrating close to 20 years of weather vane making and love what we do even more today than we did the day we started.

For additional information or if we may be of further assistance, please give us a call at 800.762.8736 or 831.425.5505; eMail at info@westcoastweathervanes.com. It would be a pleasure talking to you.

Sincerely,

LizAnne Jensen 

We hope you enjoy your visit to our website!       

 LizAnne & Ken Jensen 

Artists/Owners of West Coast Weather Vanes

Since 1988 we have specialized in limited edition, handcrafted copper weathervanes. We currently have over 600 designs that we make for people all over the world. Each sculpture is a signed, dated and numbered limited edition work of art and most are available in a variety of sizes. This gives our customers almost unlimited choices of  where they can display their weathervane.

Each of our vanes is built to individual order - our customers include individuals, designers, architects, businesses, public enterprises and governmental organizations. In addition, we are known in the trade for our ability to do special commission weathervanes. In fact, over 90% of our weathervane designs originally resulted from customers coming to us with their own ideas of what they wanted represented in this art form. Recent clients have included the White House, Warner Brothers, Universal Studios,  the X-Files, the Del Mar Racetrack, Dollywood, the Wolf Trap Performing Arts Center, a new sports facility near Dallas and the Houston and Nashville zoos.