Carousel-Part 13- Folk Art Camel-Photos

At last, the camel is complete.  I added his tail, the harness and bridle, and some tassels.  The camel is only three and a half inches at his highest point.  As you might imagine, the tassels are really small and were so difficult to make at that size that it was only through pure stubbornness that I managed to preservere and complete them. 

The harness straps are made from hemp twine that I braided and covered with glue before painting.  The reins were made from size 10 crochet thread.  The tassels were made from the crochet thread as well. 

I'm really glad the camel is complete.  The other two animals won't have the same amount of decoration on them.  They will finish out fairly easily.   Mostly they will be paint, although I may add a small bell for the cat.

Every project has a cycle.  It starts out with a lot of enthusiasm.  Then you hit a phase where you realize just how much this project is likely to be, but you think you are still up for it.  At the lowest point, you wonder why you ever started this project and would like to just quit and throw it in the trash.  If you can find it within yourself to continue on with the piece, you will reach a point where you begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  At the end you have the satisfaction of completing the piece and hopefully will enjoy the results.  Most artists will always think they could have done a better job than they actually did, but that is just the perfectionist coming out.  The point is that we created something that was not there before, and that is no small thing.