Another busy week, but at least I was able to make some time to work on my carousel project. I am still working on creating the animals. This week I started working on the pattern for the cat. At least the pattern has been transferred to graph paper, and the basic shape of the cat forms have been cut out. Sometimes even minimal progress has to be counted as a win.
The pattern shows both the Romance side (the side that faces the public) and the far side. I had to make some adjustments to the pattern on the front legs. The legs were so close together that I had some concerns about how multiple layers of paper mâché would impact the chest of the cat with the legs being in close proximity. I raised the leg higher on the far side to give it a little more visual distance between them. I also needed to make sure I had enough room between the legs to be able to get a paint brush in there to paint.
In the original pattern, the far side paw was turned outward so that the bottom of the paw's pads could be seen. I changed it to facing downward. This would make it easier to paint. Even though the creature is somewhere between five and six inches long, it is still small when it comes to painting a lot of detail.
I also changed the shape and incline of the ears. I think it makes the cat look more alert.
In the photo, the far side of the pattern is on the left. The Romance side is on the right. The tail is in the upper middle between the body patterns. Obviously, the tail goes in the middle of the rump, so you could not have the pattern of it on each side of the piece.
Anyway, the next step is to turn it into a three-dimensional object. Regular readers have seen this method in previous posts. I will be showing it again in the next post. I know it is repetitive when I am doing multiple animals, but not everyone is a regular reader.
After the cat is completed, I only need to make one more animal. I am going back and forth as to what I want to do for the next animal. I have made two horses, one ram, and a tiger. So, three animals with hooves and two felines once the cat is complete. I am debating whether I want to do some other type of goat, a gazelle, or a lion. The jury is still out on that, but I am leaning towards another goat type creature just for consistency of size and shape in the animals. However, most carousels with multiple animal types do not generally have the same type of animals in each row, so I am conflicted about what to do. I also have reconsidered the giraffe pattern that I made earlier. It is too tall, and I will have to raise the overall height of the project if I use it. I am not sure I want to do that. It is a matter of having the space to display it once the project is finished.
Once the animals are finished, the decorating fun begins. I have already purchased what I need to make the clay that will be used to make the saddles, flowers, and other decorations. I am looking forward to getting to that part of the project. Because I have to mix up batches of clay, I may be working on multiple animals at once. The internet says you can keep clay in the refrigerator for a few days, but my experience with that has not been a good one.
As regular readers know, I recently completed my Green Man Pumpkin project. For the next few weeks, I want to put a lot of time into this project. I probably will not pick up a second project until after Thanksgiving. With the holidays coming on I will not have the time to add another project. I do have one unfinished doll project that has been sitting for a long time. I may post an update on that project from time to time between now and then.
The reason I have been going back and forth between projects is to keep myself from becoming bored with the project. By having a break between one animal and the next, it breaks up the monotony for the readers too. Many people do not want to take on a long-term project because it does not have as much instant gratification as a quick project. It takes a lot of patience and perseverance to stay on task for months at a time. Having a second project going has helped keep me from just putting it aside and saying I cannot take any more of this.
Check back next week on Monday or Tuesday for the next update on this project.
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