Carousel Part 37- Folk Art Carousel Completed

My Folk Art Carousel is now complete.  I'm pleased out how it turned out.  I must admit that once I started this project that I thought I might have bitten off more than I could chew.  It was an ambitious project to say the least.  The small size of the project added to the difficulty.  It took a lot of fine motor movements to work with something this small.  The finished size of the project is twelve inches in diameter and nine and a half inches high.  Now I know why most carousel carving projects start at one eighth size.  You can't put a lot of detail into anything much smaller.  However, the size of this carousel makes it a very usable decorative item.  Not everyone has the room for a decorative item that is three or more feet across.

 As usual in my projects, I always try to incorporate some technique that I have not tried before.  In this case, almost the whole thing was experimental.  I had not tried the technique of creating three dimensional menagerie animals by using poster board and wooden braces.  I also experimented with using cloth with paper mache' to create the rugs that sit atop the camel.  This worked out very well, and I plan to use it in future projects.  This is also the first project in which I have incorporated moving parts; the spinner mechanism that allows the carousel to turn.  Movement within a project has opened up a lot of possibilities for future works.

The Johnny Cake faces were fun to make.  I also make dolls, so faces are not totally new to faces, but I really put a lot into trying to make certain kinds of expressions on this project.  Up until now, the faces I've done have not showed a lot of personality, emotion, or intent.  I was too busy concentrating on making a proportional face.  I'm definitely going to have to explore developing an expression the next time I make a doll.  I realize now how much expression can enhance the doll or project.  

I learned a good deal about the history of carousels for this project.  Now that there are so few around I feel really privileged to have ridden so many during my lifetime.  Like the song says, "You never miss a thing till its gone."  If I had the funds for it, I think I would tour the country riding carousels the way some people do to ride roller coasters.  I think it would be a great trip, or more likely trips.  Well, you never know, I'll put it on my bucket list.  

I also learned that the outside of a menagerie animal is called the Romance side and is more highly decorated than the inside of the figure.  The inside also has a name, but it escapes me just this moment.  I wish I had put more decoration on the animals, but I was somewhat limited by the size.  Trying to do decorative painting on something so small was quite difficult.  The brass rods that serve as poles and the brass bead findings were purchased.  The balls that sit atop the brass beads I made and painted myself.  I wanted to put as much of my own work into this project as possible.

If I had any advice to give to someone making a carousel, it would be to build the carousel structure first and do the menagerie animals at the end.  Although it is reasonable to make the animals first to make sure your sizing of the carousel is right, I found that once the menagerie animals were complete, the romance of this project was over.  (Pardon the pun.)  The proper size of the animals could have been determined by the cardboard mock ups made at the beginning.  Once I had completed the menagerie animals, it was an effort of the will to stay on track with the project.  I just had to keep plugging away at it until the project was finished.

The part I enjoyed the most on this project was the memories it allowed me to access from my past.  Carousels and amusement parks don't come to mind that frequently.  I've recaptured more memories with this project than I have with others.  It is amazing what you remember once you stop and pay attention.  Memories that are buried deeply come to the surface when you take the time to observe what is going through your mind while you are working on a project.  So I guess I will end this blog post with one more memory: a small hand tightly clutching a ticket, eagerly waiting to get on the carousel.