Tri-Cities native’s intricate artisan weathervanes get national TV attention on CBS

Having grown up in the windy Tri-Cities area, it seems fitting that Anthony Holand makes his craft sculpting large artisan weathervanes.

The Finley native is the owner-sculptor at Tuck & Holand Metal Sculptors studio in Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

He works alone in a 1,000-square-foot gallery and studio space. For the last two summers, Holand has had an apprentice, a high school student from Walla Walla who spends the summer with his family on Martha’s Vineyard.

Now recognized as a renowned metal sculptor, Holand and his business will be featured on CBS “Sunday Morning: By Design” annual special edition on Sunday, May 19.

Artisan weathervanes

These works of art aren’t your typical weathervanes. Holand said it takes six or more weeks to complete a single sculpture.

Custom sculptures start at $30,000. Numbered works range from $8,500 to $18,000 each.

For anyone interested in buying Holand’s custom weathervanes, the waitlist has been up to three years long for the last 30 years.

His weathervanes have traveled as far as New Zealand and Hong Kong.

“When you get a custom piece from me, it’s a unique piece,” Holand said. “That’s the only piece that will be made.”

To make the weathervanes, Holand starts with drawings and edits the weathervane onto a photo of the customer’s house to determine scale. Once he begins sculpting, he uses non-rusting copper sheet, brass and bronze, sourced from metal suppliers in Boston.

“Copper gets that nice patina, darkens brown and slowly gets green,” he explained.

He accents sculptures with 23.5 karat gold leaf and paladium silver leaf. The weathervanes range from 28 to 32 inches and are built to last hundreds of years with minimal maintenance.

“It’s the cherry on top of the house,” he said. “I think the most successful piece tells a story.”

Staying connected to Tri-Cities

He was featured in the Herald in 2012. It was by chance that Holand transitioned from a Columbia Basin College art student to an sculptor near Cape Cod in 1996.

“A friend from college followed a girl there, then he talked me into coming back there for a summer to work,” the River View High School grad said. “I found a job at a bike shop, then came home at the end of summer to finish up at CBC.”

The following summer, he returned to Martha’s Vineyard to work at the bike shop. But Holand ended up apprenticing with famed sculptor Travis Tuck, whose work was commissioned by Bill and Hillary Clinton and Steven Spielberg.

Holand said he immediately bonded with Tuck and praises the master sculptor for having shared his expertise in making custom weathervanes. Tuck made Holand his business partner in 2002, forming Tuck & Holand Metal Sculptors, before dying of mesophelioma.

Holand’s family still lives in the Tri-Cities, Wash., area.

His father and stepmother live at Canyon Lakes in Kennewick, and his mother and stepfather live in Finley.

If he was asked to make a weathervane to represent the Tri-Cities, he said it would incorporate wind and water. “Maybe a bluff or something related to agriculture? That’s the fun part.”