Customer Reviews

Whirligigs & Weathervanes: A Celebration of Wind Gadgets with Dozens of Creative Projects to Make

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I teach arts and crafts at a summer camp in the North Georgia mountains and am always looking for some fun, original folk art to do with the kids. After buying several other whirligig books on the market, I decided to buy this one, hoping it would be easier to understand. It was! Additionally, the photo gallery is phenominal. Whimsical works of art laughing in the breeze. If you are interested in building whirligigs, this would be the first book I would recommend.

Here's a "how to" text that works! WHIRLIGIGS AND WEATHERVANES is beautifully formatted with rich bold photography, clean helpful graphics and clear textual instruction. After reading Paul Fleischman's WHIRLIGIG, I wanted my students to share the experience of the novel's protagonist, 16-year-old Brent Bishop, who must build four whirligigs. Brent finds a used book that gets him started. It's simple, clear and useful, and it provides the basic skills and knowledge Brent needs to create his own inspired inventions. I discovered WHIRLIGIGS AND WEATHERVANES while searching for a very similar title Fleischman used in his story - Make Your Own Whirligigs and Weathervanes - which just MAY be an invention inspired by Schoonmaker and Woods's text!) My husband and I are now finishing OUR first whirligig - "Soul of the Woodworker" - incorporating a profile of my husband's head and a silhouette of my left hand! Instructions are found on pp 44-5!

This book is filled with good quality color pictures of many projects. It also explains how to make the complicated parts of wind toys. It tells what kinds of wood will hold up, and what kinds of wood will fail. It improved my whirligig designs greatly, and added many new ideas for my new ones. Well worth the money.

I've had this book for a year and am finally making my first project (How the west was lost). IMHO you need to have some woodworking experience to do the projects other than the very simple ones. Making small parts is difficult on all but a scroll saw or bandsaw with a small blade. Step-by-step specific instructions are scarce. Still, I give this book 4 stars because I really like the projects. I also like being able to come up with my own colors and painting rather than paint by the numbers. I can tell you that the materials that they tell you to use for the mechanical parts are right on. Wire is just too flimsy from my experience. Use a photocopy machine to increase or decrease your pattern sizes. Use spray adhesive to stick the patterns on the wood and you'll get the size you want.

Excellent information, but I would have liked to see better illustrations of this dying art form.

Nevertheless, I recommend it to everyone that is interested in preserving this folkloric art.

I have seen whirlygigs in movies, and occasionally the simple birds with spinning wings. I wanted to know what sort of materials were needed to make the more involved mechanical devices - such as the man sawing wood. This book did not disappoint. The author provides information on materials to use for reliable service in a device exposed to the elements. This is an excellent place to start.

Some of the designs are quite creative - a few looked like they escaped from the movie Yellow Submarine.

I LOVED JUST LOOKING AT THIS BOOK. THE IMAGINATION OF THE WHIRIGIGS AT THE FRONT OF THE BOOK WAS JUST AMAZING. THEY WERE LIKE WORKS OF ART. THE DIRECTIONS FOR THE ONES YOU ACTUALLY MAKE ARE NOT THAT ELABORATE THOUGH. BUT IT GIVES YOU LOTS OF IDEAS FOR WHEN YOU GET REALLY GOOD.