Beginning the Carousel Project-Pictures

The spinning base hardware.

I'm beginning to work on the carousel.  Today, I am blogging about the base, and why it is important to let a project incubate in your mind for a while before beginning the actual work.  My initial idea for creating a carousel was generated after viewing a project for a string powered carousel folk art toy.  It was simple enough to construct, and the simple shape of the animals in the project left a lot of room for improvement.  I felt I could turn the project into something interesting.

Twelve inch diameter base.

The rotating action for the toy was powered by winding the strings around the center post to create tension.  Once the toy was wound up, you let it go and the carousel went around until the strings unwound completely.  I probably would have created that type of carousel if I had not let the project sit for a few days.  I had some concerns as to how long the strings might last and  whether they would become tangled as the project spun around.  Maybe, maybe not.  I did not build one to find out.  New ideas rose to the surface.

Spinner base and wooden platform.

I was pondering the question of how to make the carousel spin and wondering if a wooden lazy susan might not have been a better idea for a rotating platform.  I had seen some large ones at a home decorating store, that were twenty-four inches in diameter.  It would have been a great platform and spun easily, but they were fifty dollars.  Fifty dollars!  They were boards that had been painted and distressed.    Could I make something like that?  Maybe, but it would cost as just as much by the time I bought all the materials. 

It was at about this point that I shared my carousel ideas with my husband who said, "I have just the thing."  He brings out a base that he had at one time planned to use to create some rotating shelves in a closet.  The project never came off because we replaced our oil fired furnace with central heating and air conditioning, and we used that closet to house the air handler.  He had kept the bases (he had two of them) all of these years because "some day I'm going to do something with it."   And now, more than ten years later, I'm going to use it in a carousel project.  Two pieces of his "save it for later" pile have successfully been transferred from his pile to mine.  This is why creative people never want to throw anything out.  Sooner or later we will find something to do with all those bits and parts we keep hanging around.

So now I am faced with a dilemma,  the spinning base is heavy duty and I could easily build a larger carousel.  Two feet in diameter would be no problem for the base.  And it would allow for larger carousel animals, but, it will be harder to find a place to display something of that size.  If the project comes out well, someone may want to buy.  However,  if it is too large it could be harder to sell for the same reason.  If it is smaller, at least I will have a place to put it.  (Space for my art work is getting to be at a premium.  My husband is getting a little ticked off at the life size folk art pig I made that is hanging out in our living room.) So, plywood or hardwood boards?  Something purchased or a platform I made myself?  Larger or smaller?

Since this is my first attempt at a carousel project, I've decided that I will go with a smaller size platform and smaller animals.  A smaller size will allow me to experiment with  animals without having to spend as much time on each one.  When I start a project like this, I experiment with different methods for making the objects.  My first idea is not always my best idea.  Hopefully, by the time I have finished the last animal I will have come up with an optimal way to produce them.

The first picture shows the metal base.  The second picture shows the metal base covered with a wooden clock face purchased from a craft store.  It was the right size, and the edges were already routed to a decorative edge.  Now that I have the spinning part figured out, I'm ready to get going on the project.

On a twelve inch diameter platform the animals will be about three inches from nose to the tail or foot, whichever is the longer measurement.  That is about one sixteenth of a full size carousel animal.   Even at that size, I will probably have to do just a single row of animals around the carousel.  I think a double row would appear to be crowded.  But I'll have to wait and see on that.  Another option would be to stagger the animals in inner and outer rows.  I'll have to wait and see how it looks once the animals are created.

Next blog will be about figuring out how to make the animals.