Blacksmith made weather vane

I have been thinking for a while that I need to replace the shop bought weather vane, currently sitting over the garage, with a proper blacksmith made weather vane.

The current weather vane, as seen here, was bought about 20 years ago from a garden centre somewhere long forgotten.

It was chosen more for its subject matter than its overall design, pigs being a favourite of my wife.

However, over recent years the weather has taken its toll and I have had to make a few running repairs to the arms. From a distance it still looks OK, but for a while I have wanted to make a slightly more ornate weather vane before the old one falls apart.

So now I have set the scene, the work began. The one stipulation was that it must have the same basic pig design. I therefore started by taking a photograph of the pig and blowing it up onto aluminium sheet, but more of that to come.