A few of our bloggers, Wally and Maria have written about whirligigs before me, so my curiosity was peaked when our travel group stopped in at the Dory Workshop on the harbour in Shelburne.  Evidently this was the place to come.  The town has festival in September dedicated to this wooden art. 

What's a whirligig?  According to Wikipedia, a whirligig is an object that spins or whirls, most commonly powered by wind.  Just our luck, Shelburne had plenty of wind on the day of our visit, so we could test them out.



We were lucky to meet two characters who were as colourful as the characters in their creations.  Milford Buchanene is an expert dory builder and wood crafter who hosts a workshop during the festival.  He can turn out a whilrligig faster than the wind!

Dale Claire is a hobbyist whirligigger, and a fine one at that.   What makes a good whirligig, "just about anything" he explains.  He uses everything from coat hangers to wood to bits of old siding to bring his ideas to life.

We we discovered that whirligigs are so much more than their wiki description.  I would almost describe them as wind-powered cartoons, making comical whimsy come to life!  Our wry smiling, whirligigger told us many of the stories behind each of his creations.  Some political commentaries, like this.

Others bringing his own brand of comedy to life, showing us the only thing the binds a whirligig is creativity.

Here he tells us about O'Dell's family business.  Where they had a well digging business but the father decided he would rather dig graves.  So you have the son on the one side digging wells and the father on the other side digging a grave.

This one features an outhouse.  The carpenters are taking the outhouse down while the gentleman inside it shakes his fists furiously.  Very funny!

The Shelburne Whirligig Festival:  September 18-19, 2010