Patterns and instructions for making over twenty wooden wind gadgets including whirligigs and weathervanes.

More than two dozen traditional and original models of the wind-powered toys known as whirligigs appear in this how-to manual. Easy-to-follow instructions, detailed illustrations.

This book takes you through the history of weathervanes and whirligigs from back in knighthood days when the boys who earned the banners used them as part of their heraldic tradition. The designs have also been used as totems, mascots, symbols and stemmed from both superstition and religion as well as representational origins. From the whittled wooden whirligigs of the 18th and 19th century to Walt Disney's Tower of the Four Winds, it's all here with a whole series of accompanying illustrations drawn by the author.

Create unique whirligigs and other moving-part creations, traditional folk toys, and unusual new designs out of wood.

Easy-to-follow instructions and measured drawings for creating 25 charming little wind-driven toys — from the simple Baking a Pie whirligig to the Woman at the Computer to various weathervanes. For all levels of ability.

American Weathervanes: The Art of the Winds, published to coincide with an exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum, reveals the beauty, historical significance, and technical virtuosity of American vanes fashioned between the late seventeenth and early twentieth centuries. This American art form has long been an enduring part of the country's skylines. Early church steeples were graced with weathercocks, following a European tradition that dates to the MiddleAges. America's first documented vane maker, metalsmith Shem Drowne of Boston, crafted a number of surviving vanes, including the iconic golden grasshopper that has topped the city's Faneuil Hall since 1742. Farmers, blacksmiths, and other craftsmen proudly fashioned roosters, cows, horses, and other forms for country barns, and as the tradition and public demand expanded over the course of the nineteenth century, so did the diversity of forms, which grew to fill the mail order catalogs of commercial manufacturers in Boston, New York, and other cities. Today, weathervanes hold a well-established place in the canon of American folk art and American Weathervanes celebrates this artistry in the most up-to-date and authoritative work on the subject. Lavishly illustrated with masterworks from prominent private and public collections, this is a book to be treasured by anyone who collects or simply admires American vernacular art and sculpture.

When sixteen-year-old Brent Bishop inadvertently causes the death of a young woman, he is sent on an unusual journey of repentance, building wind toys across the land. In his most ambitious novel to date, Newbery winner Paul Fleischman traces Brent's healing pilgrimage from Washington State to California, Florida, and Maine, and describes the many lives set into new motion by the ingenious creations Brent leaves behind. Paul Fleischman is the master of multivoiced books for younger readers. In Whirligig he has created a novel about hidden connections that is itself a wonder of spinning hearts and grand surprises.

Complete patterns and instructions for 30 charming, wind-driven toys: Signaling Trainman, Flying Puffin, Colonial Dame, many more. Only inexpensive materials and a few tools needed. 113 illustrations.