Whirligigs & Weather Vanes: A Celebration of Wind Gadgets With Dozens of Creative Projects to Make

Rating:
Summary: Whirligigs: Imagination in motion
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: Whirligigs: Imagination in motion
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: very helpful
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Woodworking experience is helpful...
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: very helpful
Review: 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.