Weathervanes

The material of choice for making weather vanes has always been copper. It is used because of its longevity. There are handmade copper weather vanes in New England that were installed before the American Revolutionary War that are still up and functioning today. Hand crafted copper weather vanes ordered now should be something you can hand down for generations within a family.

If you would like, we will include an inscription of up to 30 letters ($1.00 per letter) on your weather vane. Examples could include a family name, a special saying, a memorial commemoration, etc. The location of the inscription can vary depending on the vane selected. Longer inscriptions can sometimes be accommodated (depending on the design) for an additional fee.

The letters are usually stamped directly into the weathervane itself or onto a copper plaque which is then soldered to the weathervane sculpture piece. We have letters that are either 1/8" tall (usually used for small sized weathervanes) or 1/4" tall (usually used for medium or large weathervanes.)

While the letters may be too small to see when up on the roof or a cupola, because they are stamped into the metal, they should still be legible even many decades from now. At that point, the weathervane may have been taken down off the roof and displayed indoors as a piece of American Folk Art. Even 100 years from now, an inscription put on a weathervane today should still be there for future generations to see and enjoy!

Here is a photo showing some sample inscriptions. Inscriptions are hand stamped into copper or brass using individual die cast letters.

• The top inscription shows ¼” tall stamped letters. These letters are typically used on our Medium and Large sized vanes.

• The second inscription is done in a combination of ¼” tall letters and 1/8” tall letters. Occasionally, a customer would like us to use upper and lower case letters. While we can’t do actual lower case letters, the combination of the two different sized letters can convey a similar effect.

• The bottom inscription in done entirely with 1/8” letters.  These letters are typically used on our Small sized vanes.

Small weather vanes come with a 5 1/4” diameter brass base.  If no room is available on the West Coast Weather Vane sculpture piece itself, the personalized inscription can be placed on the base as shown by the example below. 

If you decide you want your inscription, we can usually do any combination of letters. Sometimes the size of the vane or the space available determines how an inscription can be applied. If you would like an inscription on your vane, it usually works best if you can email us your inscription. That will help insure that it is correctly stamped and punctuated on your new weathervane.