I am just getting started on the first horse in my new carousel project. This is going to be a long-term project. Years ago I made a miniature paper mâché carousel. The animals were only two to three inches tall. This time I am ready for a slightly larger carousel. I plan on making a larger carousel. It will be 1/8th scale. The animals will be somewhere between four and seven inches tall, depending upon the species.
In my blog post last week, I described and showed pictures of how I transferred the pattern to graph paper. I was working from a published pattern for wood carving. I needed to make adjustments to the original pattern in order to make it more usable for working in paper mâché. Because of the small size of the horse, I needed to adjust the head and neck to allow for more room for the layers of paper mâché.
Once I had my own pattern set, I transferred the pattern to some heavy blue cardstock that I happened to have on hand. It is not necessary to use cardstock for this project, but I try to use what I have to keep costs down. Gray board would have worked well, or even cardboard from a cereal box. Corrugated cardboard could have been used, but it would have been bulkier, and it would have been harder to cut out the figure.
I cut out two of the front side, (lower two horse shapes) which is called the Romance side on carousel animals. This side is usually more decorated as it is the side that people will see if they are looking at the carousel. This will make one horse. This will make more sense as you see the construction of the horse below.
The upper two shapes are for the side of the animal that faces the center of the carousel. Generally, the side facing the center is not as ornately decorated, but I really have not yet considered what decorations I want and how I will make them.
Cardstock is not a heavy material. It is less flimsy than regular writing paper, but not strong enough on its own to stand up. I needed some support so I added a few bits of toothpicks to the underside of one of the horse silhouettes to keep it from being floppy. Obviously, I was not attempting to make it look like an actual skeleton. The toothpicks were attached with hot glue.
I have a tip for cutting the toothpicks, in case you are considering trying this. Use heavy kitchen shears, cover the toothpick with a towel and cut the toothpick. This will prevent small pieces from flying all over the place. Another method is to place the toothpick on a cutting board and use a box cutter to make the cut, by rolling the toothpick until it is cut all the way around, then snap it or use the box cutter to make the final cut.
Once the toothpick supports are complete, I covered the toothpick side with the second silhouette of the horse. The figures are lined up so that they match in all areas. I used masking tape to keep the pieces matched up while I worked on the next section.
The same process was used to strengthen the back side of the horse. I did not take a picture of that. Sometimes I get so involved in what I am trying to do that forget to stop and take a picture.
Now I have two flat but stiff horse pieces. In the next blog post I will show how I turn these pieces into a three-dimensional horse. Check back next week.
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