Painting Finished - Sealing Underway -Next Up Paper Clay

 I have finished the painting on the body of the carousel.  I have to admit; it took much longer than I thought it would.  Even sanded, the plywood was a bit rough.  Everything needed two coats of paint.  Even then, it seemed a little dull.  I was beginning to wonder whether I should have used some other type of paint.  However, once I started adding the sealer, the color came to life.  It has a wonderful glow to it now.  I am very pleased with it.  Sorry, no picture of it yet.

A satin exterior sealer was what I used on it.  Not that I plan to take it outside, this is what I had on hand.  At first, I had considered a gloss sealer, but I did not have enough to do the whole carousel.  I had some spar varnish, but that tends to yellow over time.  That may actually have made the carousel look like an antique as it aged, but I am not sure how it would look in the long run.  So, I used an exterior grade of acrylic sealer.  It gives the piece enough shine that it looks as if it has depth to it.  Of course, every inch of it needs at least one two coats of sealer.

I am about one-third of the way through sealing the project.  If the weather had cooperated, I might have finished it this week.  It has been hot and muggy and many days with a heat index of over one hundred. When it was not beastly hot, it was pouring rain.  My weather radio kept blasting multiple alerts for severe storm warnings day after day.  I call it my daily dose of terror.

 The humidity affects the drying time.  I needed ventilation for this segment of the project, and it was too humid to open the windows.  I had to paint a small area and then vacate the room because the fumes are not a good thing to be inhaling.

Now that I am coming up on the end of the sealing, I am starting to look at my options for making paper clay.  In past projects, I have made my own paper clay, and I expect to make it for this project also.  Years before the internet came to be, I purchased a book on craft glues, clays, paper mâché. and handmade paints.  I was planning on using one of those recipes because I am familiar with those processes.  There are plenty of recipes online as well for those that don't have access to old books.  I suggest looking at Jonni Good's The Ultimate Paper Mâché website.  There are recipes there.  She also sells books on Amazon.  Another good reference would be to watch Dragonfang's YouTube posts on making paper mâché pumpkins.  They both have a lot of good information.  (A word of warning if you are searching for Dragonfang.  There is also a Marvel character called Dragonfang, and your searches will bring up pages on character.  Search using the name Dragonfang along with the terms paper mâché and pumpkins.)

This week I will be choosing my clay recipe.  I am leaning towards one that uses toilet paper as a base for no other reason that it is already white.  Paper clays made using newspaper are a depressing gray color.  It needs extra coverage with gesso before painting.  

Next week I hope to have some photos of the clay and the first layer of the accessories for the animals.  

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the first pictures.

More on Carousel Painting - Part 48

 I was setting up the carousel this morning to take a picture for the blog when I realized that I had not painted the gold rim on the base that holds the rotating platform.  I also noticed that the floor that the animals will be on needed some touch ups.  I had painted it while it was upside down in order to keep it off the plastic I was using as a drop cloth while painting it.  When I turned it over the edge that was underneath did not get as much coverage as I would like.

So, it looks like at least another day or two of painting before this is finished.  I wish I had more time to work on it, but this is a hobby and the rest of life has more claims to my time.  I was particularly disappointed because I had planned to start getting out the stuff and starting to make the paper clay for the animal's decorations.  Barring an emergency, I will be starting on it within a week.  

The wooden cut out of a witch and cauldron tacked up on the wall is my inspiration for my next Halloween piece.  I always like to keep another project in mind while finishing up a project.  Having another project lined up helps keep me motivated when a project I am working on is dragging.  I need to finish it so I can get on to the next one.

I find that when I complete a project that I first experience the glow of excitement that comes with successfully completing something.  That is followed by a letdown as I see how much better I could have made the project.  While viewers of a project tend to look at the whole thing at once, I look at the project inch by inch and see all the things I might have been able to do differently.  Once I have gone beyond those feelings, I sometimes have a sense of emptiness, as if the muse has gone and I am alone.  (Actually, muse is a very old term used for an inspirational spirit that is motivating a male, the word damon < yes, spelled with an a > is used for an inspirational spirit motivating a female, but not as many people are familiar with that term.)  I have in the past experienced this feeling of inspiration having left, and it is actually emotionally painful.  You worry that inspiration may never come again.  I keep some future project in mind just so that I have something to focus on so I will not have to feel as if I have no ideas about what to do next.  I may not even start with that project if another idea pops up, but at least I have something to keep ideas churning.  

Anyway, I am looking forward to finally finishing this part of the project and getting on to making the animals saddles, blankets, and bridles.  I hope to be blogging about making the paper clay.  Check back next week on Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.  

Closing in on a Milestone on the Carousel - Part 47

 I have put in another three hours on painting the carousel.  Painting the carousel has been much more time consuming than I thought it would be. Aside adding a final coat of paint to the top of the carousel platform I gave two coats of gesso to the rims of the top and bottom platforms.  The top edge of the platform has received its first coat of gold paint.  It needs a second and perhaps a third coat of the 14-carat gold paint in order for it to gleam richly.

Regular readers are probably wondering where all the stars are that I was drawing on the stencil I planned to make.  Funny story about that.  The stars are now in limbo.  I was visiting my mother, and I was telling her my plan to use the stars as a means of making sure the top and bottom platforms to line up with the proper holes.  My husband spoke up at that point and said that I did not need to do that.  The screws that hold the top platform to the internal support are set in a pattern and the top will only join the support if the screw holes line up.  Yes, of course they do, so it begs the question of whether or not I need to put stars on the top.  

I guess my main concern is that it might make the carousel look too gaudy.  I want to keep the focus on the carousel animals.  I have decided to hold off on the stars until after the animals are added to the carousel.  If it looks as if it needs more embellishments after that, then I have the plan for the stars more or less ready to go.  I might need to add some more smaller stars to the pattern for the stencil before I cut it.

I was hoping to have the painting finished before this post, but the spare time to work on it just was not there.  It will definitely be finished this week though.  I am so slow these days.  Everything takes me much longer than I think it should.  So, this carousel has been made and painted step by step and inch by inch for however long it takes.

Readers may wonder why I keep changing my mind on things.  That really is the way the creative process works.  Some people start a project with everything worked out in exact detail of what they want to create.  Others, such as I, prefer to have a basic idea of what they want and let the decorative details develop by looking at the piece and asking what wants to be there; letting the space inform me of what it needs.  This allows for an artist to follow flow, which I have found to be essential to creating something that has a special feel to it.  

One more week of painting will finish off that segment of creating the carousel.  Then I can get back to the joy of working on the details of the carousel animals.  Making the animals has been the best part of this project and I am so looking forward to making and adding their decorations and painting them.  That is the last step before putting the carousel together.  It has been a long time coming to this point.  So, hang in there with me readers and I will be on to that shortly.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

Painting the Top Platform of the Carousel - Part 46

 I am still painting the carousel.  I know my readers are getting tired of waiting for me to finish this part so I can get on with working on the carousel animals again.  But this is how it is sometimes on a long project.  There is a lot of work that needs to be done and the only way to get to the next section is to just continue to work on it until I get through it.  However, I am very close to completing this part of the project.  The top of this platform is the last piece that needs to be painted.

I need to put one more coat on the top of this platform.  There is a section in the center that did not cover well.  My brush was a little too wet, and the center has an area that did an area that did not coat evenly.  I had hoped to get that last coat of paint on yesterday, but it was very humid and that paint took a long time to dry.  I finally had to stop watching paint dry and just get on with my day.  

I did not want to leave the top painted a plain blue.   At one time I had thought about maybe putting a circus tent like top on it but decided that it was already very tall and I did not want to add any more height to it.  However, I did not want to leave it plain so I thought about how I might decorate the top while the paint was drying.

I also had another situation that I needed to address before I went any further with painting.  Regular readers may recall that earlier on in the project holes needed to be drilled through the top and floor platforms so that the poles for the animals could go through them.  The holes were drilled in both platforms at the same time so that they would match up appropriately.  My husband had the forethought to add a couple of registration marks so that I would have an easy way to make sure that the holes were aligned properly.  Slight differences in where the holes were drilled means that not just any hole would do, but the holes that were drilled together must be together to keep the animals perpendicular to the base platform, floor platform, and ceiling platform.  A small variation could cause the pole to lean slightly, which would put extra torque on the pole.  That could cause a pole to snap.  

The registration marks need to be transferred to the carousel permanently.  If I ever need to take it apart, it would be much easier with the registration marks to put it back together again.  So, the question was how to incorporate them into the decorations without them being overly obvious. I decided that the marks would be painted on, but that each mark would be attached to a small star.  One star would be painted at one point, and two stars at the other registration mark with two lines.  If I paint stars all over the top, the small stars and registration marks will not be as easily spotted.

I did not want to just randomly paint stars on the top because I did not want to paint it and then decided that it does not look right.  That would be a lot of sanding and repainting.  So, I pulled out my pattern that has been utilized many times throughout this project.  If you look closely, you can see some of the stars drawn on it.  I decided it would be better to make my mistakes there where I could erase something I did not like.  Once I get the layout to my level of satisfaction, (Or to my acceptable level of dissatisfaction) I will make a stencil and use that to transfer the markings to the top platform.  It is an extra step, but I try not to underestimate my ability to mess something up at the last moment.  I am more of a maker than a painter.  

There will be at least one more week of watching paint dry, and then I will finally be on to working on the animals again.  Some readers might have wondered why I just kept slogging through the painting rather than stop and work on an animal once in a while.  The answer is that the saddles, blankets, and bridles will be made from paper clay.  I was planning on making my own paper clay.  The clay does not keep all that well, and it would have meant making multiple batches of paper clay.  It would be more work and resources to make multiple batches.  Even though the painting has been a bit of a grind, it was better for me to just make the accessories all at once.  The main thing that you have to remember on a long project is that it is mainly a matter of showing up to do the work.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

Sorry, No Progress This Week -Situations - Post 45

 This week has been unusually hot and humid.  We have been under an Extreme Heat Alert for days.  This area has also been under a Code Red or a Code Purple air quality alert for days from wildfire smoke.   It has been too much to do more than try to breathe and stay cool.  I became somewhat dehydrated and was not feeling well.  I did not realize what was wrong until I stopped sweating and started feeling dizzy when the electricity went out for about four hours during a thunderstorm.  

The heat is supposed to drop today and tomorrow.  I hope to have some quality time in my studio this week.  

Again, sorry for not having anything on the carousel to post this week.  Check back Monday or Tuesday for the next post.

Painting the Carousel Platforms - Part 44

It has been a hot and rainy week here and I spent quite a bit of indoor time painting the carousel platforms this week.  It has been slow going.  I am using acrylic paint, and each piece has needed at least two coats of paint.   The floor platform seen in this picture in green will need a third coat.  I spent about six hours painting on it this week.

In the interest of getting this project done sometime in the next few months, I decided to give up on my grandiose plans for the column of the carousel.  As I blogged last week, my husband needed to be able to see where the central hole was marked for the top platform before I started to paint.  At first, he planned only to drill the main hole but ended up drilling and placing all the screws and made sure the platform was level.  At that point he suggested leaving it together and painting it as it was.  

That was easier said than done.  The platforms are about sixteen inches (40.64 cm.) apart.  I had to hold the platforms on an angle, or duck down and look underneath the top platform in order to paint the column.  The platforms are made from plywood and they are heavy.  And of course, the platforms are round, so they wanted to roll when I held them up on an angle.  So, it was not easy to paint when it was all put together.

Anyway, I decided that I would decorate the central column with spiraling lines and paint the lines as if they were covered with colored lights.  This photo does not show the lights very well, but up close they are very bright.  I used neon paint left over from another project.  The lights are painted orange, green, yellow, and gold.

I still need to paint the lights around the top of the column.  I just ran out of time.  Also, my hand was getting sore after two days of painting.  I needed to rest it for a while.  

There are still more areas that need painting.  Besides the third coat to the bottom of the platform and the lights at the top of the column, I need to paint the rims of all three platforms, these two shown here and the bottom platform that will hold the rotating platform.  I have been holding off on painting the rims because they have some key marks on them to let me know which top and bottom holes go together when I add the animals and their poles.  The platforms were drilled at the same time, and slight variations in where the holes are drilled would make it difficult to keep the animals upright unless the two platforms are properly aligned.  Once the platforms are finished being painted, I will be decoratively repainted on the platforms so they will be there permanently in case I ever need to take the carousel apart.  

I also need to paint the top of the upper platform.  That platform has not been painted yet other than the little knobs.  I painted them while I had the gold paint out for the platform.  The knobs on top are there to help hold the poles upright.  I probably have at least five hours of painting left to finish up this section.  

This is where I left off for the week.  Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

Paper Mâché Carousel - Attaching the Column - Part 43

This week was a holiday weekend.  I did not get very much done on the project.  I spent hours in the kitchen rather than in the studio.  At this point in life, I would have to say that cooking up something "special for the holidays" is highly overrated.   

Apart from that, the weather has been so hot that it has been too hot to go into the studio.  The real temperature was 102 F (38.88 C) and the heat index (feels like) temperature was 110F to 120 F) (43-48 C).  Even with air conditioning, which ran non-stop for three days, it was too hot to stay in the room.  Just standing there was causing me to break out into a sweat.  It was miserable outside and inside.  All we could do was sit in front of the fan and try to stay hydrated.  It really was not conducive to getting anything done.

The only thing that was accomplished on the carousel this week was that the floor and ceiling of the carousel are now attached with screws.  I had thought that my husband was just going to just drill one center hole in the ceiling plate at this point so we would know where to attach it to the center of the column. However, he ended up drilling all the screws in because it was too difficult to make sure everything was level and plumb with it only having one screw in it.  

We did assemble the whole carousel to make sure the holes were keyed to its matched set. When the floor and ceiling were drilled, they were drilled together all at once.  Slight variations in the drilling meant that I had to make sure that the holes that were meant to be together were still paired or else the animals' poles would not be completely upright.  Too much of a slant could cause the pole to break or the ball on the underside to drag at a poor angle.  After all that, my husband suggested I just leave the column together and paint it with the ceiling in place.  I did not get a picture of it together again.  Working in a really hot room was not conducive to thinking about taking pictures.   

I guess this means I will be painting the column very simply just due to the difficulty of trying to paint while ducking my head under the ceiling platform.  Sometimes simpler is better anyway.  I have a new idea and I think it will look great and keep from distracting from the animals.  

Check back next Monday or Tuesday and see how the painting turns out.