St. Paul Pioneer Press
St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN)March 18, 2000 VANE GLORY//CURRENTLY, FANCIFUL WEATHER VANES - FOR INDOOR AND OUTDOOR DECORATION - ARE RIDING HIGH ON THE WINDS OF FASHION. Author: Molly Guthrey Staff Writer Section: EXPRESSPage: 1EEstimated printed pages: 2 Article Text: They came to admire the flowers. And the windows. And to track the latest home-improvement trends. But they ended up spending their cash on weather vanes. At the Minneapolis Home and Garden show earlier this month, it seemed about one in five visitors lugged around the ``Sitting Cat'' weather vane from the Weathervane Capitol booth. The weather vane is a utilitarian object, completely practical in its design to show the direction the wind is blowing. But it is fashionable again among both city and country folks. Why is such an old, familiar piece of landscape trendy? Perhaps because weather vanes now often come with garden mounts and also are designed as indoor tabletop decorations, so people don't have to climb up onto their roofs to show off the pieces.

Locally, many garden centers carry weather vanes, as do specialty shops and home-improvement stores, such as Menards. They range in price from $19.99 at Menards to $500 at Redi-Bilt Weather Vanes & Cupolas in Plymouth. Weather vanes also can be found in antiques shops. But perhaps the easiest place to find them is on the Internet. We found weather vanes online ranging from the economical to the artistic. For example, www.weathervanecapitol.com, a family-owned business in Arkansas, sells its solid-steel weather vane for $37. Noomen Cabinets Specialties in Westbrook, Minn. (www.noomen-cabinets) will create sturdy aluminum or copper weather vanes with garden- or roof-style mounts, as well as the tabletop variety, for $38 to $840. And the most glorious of all? Artist Lori Rob of Connecticut makes colorful, custom-made weather vanes that look like they should be hanging in a museum, not perched on a roof: Each fanciful, hand-forged weather vane is raised from a flat sheet of copper or brass and hammered to shape. For free, the SkyArt Studio prepares a customized proposal for customers, including a rendering of the image and its design specifications. Look at some samples (check out the $700 gilded New England Sugar Maple Leaf) at www.skyartstudio.com or call SkyArt at (888) 332-2762. Molly Guthrey writes about homes and gardens and can be reached at mguthrey@pioneerpress.com or (651) 228-5505. Caption:7 Photos: Chris Polydoroff, Pioneer Press1)Even city slickers can have a touch of the farm with this table-topweather vane, a decorative object for indoor use, for $65 from ParisFlea Market in Edina. This photo and the rest were taken at Johnson'sWhistling Well Farm near Afton.2) The most traditional weather vane has a rooster atop it, like this$65 tabletop one from Paris Flea Market of Edina.3)Weather vanes often come in animal shapes, such as these fromRedi-Bilt Weather Vanes & Cupolas in Plymouth, but you can find othersfeaturing airplanes, fishermen or angels. They sell for $100-$500.4)Many weather vanes can be purchased on the Internet. Noomen CabinetsSpecialties in Westbrook, Minn., sells this $228 copper eagle andother weather vanes at www.noomen-cabinets.com .5)This biplane weather vane costs $285 at Restoration Hardware.6)Pig-topped vanes, like this one from Redi-Bilt Weather Vanes &Cupolas in Plymouth, are a popular choice. It sells for $115.7)At www.weathervanecapitol.com, this loon is the top seller amongMinnesotans. It costs $37 ($7 more for the wind cups). Copyright (c) 2000 St. Paul Pioneer PressRecord Number: 0003160260