Using Paper Clay to Make the Saddles - Pics - Part 52

 This week I have been working with the paper clay mix to make the saddles for the animals.  I like this clay mix because it is very soft and easy to shape.  And provided that you can keep from sticking fingers in it once you have it like you want it, it will hold nicely in place even when the animal is standing upright.

 To make this clay I used toilet tissue, water, and white multi-purpose glue. More information on proportions of the mix, scroll back to last week's blog post.  If you are unable to scroll back, visit the blog at folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com.  Otherwise, you can just wing it easily enough.  The main thing to remember is that you want the tissue damp, add some glue, and then add in more water until the mix is soft and easy to squish into a ball of clay.  Keep working the clay until it is smooth.  

After getting the clay shaped on the animal, I used first smooth the clay with a light touch of water to help get out any lines, fingerprints, or tool marks.  Then I go over it a second time with a fifty-fifty mixture of water and white glue to finish smoothing and seal it with glue.  To date, I have not had one of the accessories develop cracks as it dries.  I have had this problem with some commercial air dry clays.

So far, I have completed three of the animals.  I had to stop and give my hand a rest for a few days.  Sculpting is becoming hard on my hands.  If I overuse them, then I may have to ice and rest them for a couple of days to get the swelling to go down.  

Of course, the animals and their accessories still need to be sanded.  I am hoping that the heat wave will break soon.  While I was sculpting these the temperature was in the upper 90s to 100+ degrees with heat indexes of higher than 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  It is not fun to be out sanding in the sun wearing a dust mask in those temperatures.

The goat and the rabbit (photo below) were covered with a cotton ball clay to give some texture to their hair.  Before the clay was added, they were created using the strip paper method as in the horse above.

The rabbit is the last one I have completed.  I still have one horse and the tiger to finish.  I am saving the tiger for last.  I really wanted to get as much experience with the clay as I could before starting to work on him.

Anyway, that is as far as I was able to get this week.  By next blog post I should have the two other animals' saddles added.

Once the saddles are finished, I will be working on the bridles.  I will be trying a different method to make the bridle parts.  I will be blogging more on that in upcoming posts.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

Homemade Paper Mâché Clay and Carousel Animals Have Their Saddle Blankets-Pictures - Part 51

I will be showing pictures of the animals with their blankets as I go along with the post.  I don't seem to have as much control over picture placement as I had in previous years.  The animals only have their blankets at this point.  I will also write about how I was able to work with putting the clay on the animals while leaving the hole for the poles for the carousel animals clear (and keeping my fingers out of the clay on one side while working on the other side).  The saddle will be added separately in the next week or so.

 I made my homemade paper clay this week.  I started with one recipe, but found it was too coarse for its intended use.  So, I started over.  I generally make my own paper clay rather than buying a premixed clay or a bag of clay mixture to which you add just water.  These mixtures are expensive (between $7.00 and $30.00 or more depending on size and type) and making paper clay costs so much less (under $2.00 when you consider the cost of the glue and tissue paper).  It is very easy to make and can be made fairly quickly depending on what method you use.  I will get to the method in just a paragraph or two.

I just want to say before I get started that it is not a case of one recipe being right for every project.  Which type of paper mâché method you use depends on the individual project.  Some clays can be made in larger batches and can be kept in the refrigerator for several days; others can only be made in smaller batches and used immediately.  For this project, I needed rather small amounts because of the small size of the animals and because I generally have to work on tight time schedules. I chose this clay because I wanted the blanket to have a cloth-like appearance once it is dry.  

One more thing before I get started, I have been working with paper mâché since I was about seven years old, so sixty plus years ago.  Having worked in it for so long, I rarely measure ingredients.  I work with it until I say, "that looks right."  I have tried to make some measurements for explaining my clay process to help readers who may wish to try it.  It is not exact and you may need to add a little of this or that to get it to the consistency you desire.

So on with the process.  To make this clay I used toilet tissue, water, and white multi-purpose glue. That is all that is in it.  I started by deciding how much toilet tissue I needed.  I was working in small batches, and each batch made about enough to make saddle blankets for two animals and have a little left over to experiment (play) with.  By the time I had completed the second saddle blanket the clay was getting a little tacky.

How did I measure how much toilet paper?  I grabbed a roll of septic safe toilet tissue, (it breaks down faster) held the loose end in one hand and the roll on a finger of the other.  I unrolled the paper until I could spread my arms no further.  That came to thirteen sheets at a time.  I did this four times, so fifty-two sheets.  Then I said that looks about right. 

Next, I ripped each length of sheets into pieces two squares of
toilet paper each, stacked them into pile. Then working four of the two squares at a time I ripped them downwards into about four or five strips.  After that I would grab a set of strips and pinched the strips into about half-inch (approximately 12.7 mm) pieces until I had my container filled with bits of tissue.  Once that was done, I added about two or three Tablespoons (about 15 ml. per Tablespoon) of water and mashed it in with the paper.  At this point I only wanted it to be damp.  Squeeze any excess water out of the paper.

I will note that you could have done put this in a blender with plenty of water, but you have to be careful.  Even toilet tissue has a grain.  If you leave the strips too long, they could wrap around the blade and bind up the blender.  Also, cleanup could be problematic.  You don't want the paper clinging to the blender to go down the drain during cleanup.  

Once the paper was damp, I crumbled it up into small bits between my fingers.  As you can see it greatly reduced in volume.  To that pile of damp paper, I added about three Tablespoons (approx. 45 ml) of white multi-purpose glue to the mix and mixed it thoroughly by squeezing it with my hands.  Note: I was wearing gloves.   Once the glue worked in, the mixture will be a little dry and crumbly.  Add some water at no more than a half-teaspoon (about 2.5 ml) at a time and work it in thoroughly until the clay is completely mixed.  If you add too much water, squeeze out the mixture and add more paper or glue as needed.  You will know it is right when there are no more odd bits of paper and it looks smooth. 

This makes a very soft clay.  I put it between two small sheets of freezer paper and rolled it with my clay rolling pen.  Once it was flat, I cut shapes to size using a story stick rather than getting my clay tools and ruler covered in paper clay. Once the clay hardens it will be difficult to get it off the tools.

In case you are not familiar with a story stick, it is an ancient construction technique used at a time when many people did not read or write.  The foreman would figure out what size something needed to be and mark it on a stick so that people that did not know how to read and measure accurately could make accurate cuts.  In this case my story stick is just a wooden craft stick.  One end is marked with a dot so I would know which end to use to begin the measurement.  The mark closest to the dot is the length measurement in this case.  The mark further from the dot is the width measurement.

With the clay still on the freezer paper, I cut a three rectangles. one for one side of the animal and across its back.  The clay is very soft and when you try to pick it up the shape will deform.  That is okay.  I wanted it soft so that I could sculpt it and smooth it out easily.  I found that a bit of an old file folder slid underneath the clay could lift it off the paper without changing the shape too much.  I used my story stick again to determine where to place the clay and smeared some full-strength white glue on the area, then added the rectangle and shaped it as I wanted.

After the first rectangle was placed on the animal, I would dip my story stick into some water and smooth the clay.  Once it was fairly smooth, I went over it again with a diluted glue mix of fifty percent water and fifty percent white glue for a final smoothing and to make sure that the clay was saturated with the glue.

When adding clay to the second side, I put a dowel through the hole that the carousel animals' pole will go through.  I could hold onto the pole and brace my thumb against the animals' leg which kept me from putting my fingers on the wet clay (most of the time.) on the side I had just worked.  Sometimes I had to rework an area.  I picked up another rectangle and added the glue and clay to the second side.  

Once I had the side pieces smoothed and shaped as I wanted, I would add the third rectangle to the back of the animal using the same method.  The main thing to remember when working on the back is that the clay must stay clear of the hole that the pole will go through.  You do not want any glue or clay in that area because once it is dry it could be difficult to insert a pole through the hole.  If glue had dripped down into the hole clean it as quickly as possible.  In the worst-case scenario you could scrape it out after it dries with a small file.

I also added the belly strap using more or less the same method.  The clay is so soft that it did not want to roll out into a narrow cylindrical (snake) shape.  It kept coming apart, so I did the best I could set it into place and then shape and smooth it as needed.

The animals and their accessories will still need sanding before they are painted.  The clay areas are smooth and dried to a hard finish without cracking.  It takes about two or three days for this clay to dry, so they will need to be braced in a way that nothing is touching the clay during the drying phase.  It is probably best not to touch the clay for at least two days.

The clay for the saddle will be made the same way.  I did not make the saddles at the same time because the clay would have been too thick.  With this moist type of clay there would be a possibility of mold developing.  I thought it would be better to make them as a separate piece.  Keeping the pieces separate will give the saddle more definition.

This is the second horse.  The mane is shaped differently from the other horse but otherwise the pattern is the same.  While I was thinking about how to make the saddle and wondered how I should make the stirrups.  For inspiration I turned to some porcelain carousel horse statues that a friend had recently given me.  They are absolutely beautiful.  To my surprise, I noticed something that I had not paid attention to before.  None of the saddles had stirrups.  They are so ornately cast and painted that I had not even realized that the stirrups were not there.  I think I am going to make the saddles the same way.  It saves a lot of work.  I am not sure how I would make stirrups that small.

This rabbit is the final carousel animal.  He is my least favorite of all the animals.  I originally made six animals, and planned to have two rows of animals, but had to back off that idea when I realized just how large this would make the carousel platform.  Other than plopping it in the center of my living room rug, there was no place in my home with enough space for it.  I had to downsize it to have somewhere to put it.  

My final animal was a cat.  I would rather have used the cat than the rabbit, but it did not work out.  With a single row of animals, the cat was so long that its tail was hitting the nose of the animal behind it.  I either had to remake the cat with its tail in a different position or go with the rabbit.  I chose to go with the rabbit because I did not want to have to start over on the cat.  I hope the rabbit looks better once it is painted.  If I find I cannot live with it, there will be another cat to make.

There is still plenty to do on this project.  Once the saddles are finished, I will start working on the bridles, which will be a completely different method.  I will get into that in a different blog post.  After that, everything will need to be given a good sanding.  (Have I mentioned recently that I really hate sanding.).  Once the sanding is complete, I will be painting the animals and staining the poles for the animals.  Even though there is still much to do, it feels as if the end of this project is coming closer.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

  

Starting to Make My Paper Clay - Part 50

The painting and sealing of the carousel's column and platforms are complete.  I estimate that it took about nineteen hours of direct working time to complete that section of the project.  Each piece of the carousel has two, and sometimes three layers of paint and two layers of acrylic sealer.    I don't have a lot of patience when it comes to watching paint dry.  It was also a case of having to have a section of time large enough to get in the studio, get set up, paint a section, and clean up. It was frustrating to have that part of the project drag on for so long.  But at least that section of the project is complete.  In a long-term project, you have to celebrate the milestones.  It is what keeps you going instead of giving up,

So now I am moving on to the next big section of the project.  This part of the project is about using paper clay to make the saddles, saddle blankets, bridles, and the ribbon and floral decorations that will go onto the animals.  Hopefully much of this section will go fairly quickly.  Or at least more quickly than the section of painting the platforms.  

I am adding this old photo of the animals just so people

could remember what they look like currently.

I am ready to start making my paper clay.  Yes, I make my own.  Many people wonder why I start from scratch rather than buy some ready-made and usable right out of the package.  Part of that is because if I made it myself, it feels more like my creation.  The other reason is cost.  An eight-ounce package of paper clay costs about ten dollars (US).  A one-pound package of bulk mix that just calls for adding water costs about twenty-five to thirty dollars.  If I make it myself, from products that I already have at home will only cost about three dollars.  As the old saying goes, "A penny saved is a penny earned."

So, I spent a morning unearthing my book on craft materials that I have had for many years.  It is called Recipes for Art and Craft Materials by Helen Roney Sattler, published in 1973.  It is a fairly comprehensive book that covers making your own glues and pastes, paints, clays, casting compounds and other things as well.  I am sure that I could find these same recipes on the internet, but for some of the recipes, people would have to be aware that they existed before they knew to look them up.  We have become so habituated to just walking into a store and picking up a product that we no longer even think about making it or how much it costs just to buy it ready mixed.

I plan to be using a recipe for making an extra soft paper mâché pulp using tissues (or toilet paper) and glue for the blankets and saddles which will be the first step.   I will let you know how well this clay rolls out.  If that should prove too soft, then I will go on to another recipe that is a firmer clay. 

Anyway, the materials are gathered and this week I hope to have at least the saddles and blankets added to each animal.  Each piece must be cut to fit for its particular animal.  Differences in size will require a custom fit around the pole.  I will have new photos next week.  If all goes well, I may even start on the bridles, which will have a different type of process.  

Check back next week on Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

Painting Finished - Sealing Underway -Next Up Paper Clay

 I have finished the painting on the body of the carousel.  I have to admit; it took much longer than I thought it would.  Even sanded, the plywood was a bit rough.  Everything needed two coats of paint.  Even then, it seemed a little dull.  I was beginning to wonder whether I should have used some other type of paint.  However, once I started adding the sealer, the color came to life.  It has a wonderful glow to it now.  I am very pleased with it.  Sorry, no picture of it yet.

A satin exterior sealer was what I used on it.  Not that I plan to take it outside, this is what I had on hand.  At first, I had considered a gloss sealer, but I did not have enough to do the whole carousel.  I had some spar varnish, but that tends to yellow over time.  That may actually have made the carousel look like an antique as it aged, but I am not sure how it would look in the long run.  So, I used an exterior grade of acrylic sealer.  It gives the piece enough shine that it looks as if it has depth to it.  Of course, every inch of it needs at least one two coats of sealer.

I am about one-third of the way through sealing the project.  If the weather had cooperated, I might have finished it this week.  It has been hot and muggy and many days with a heat index of over one hundred. When it was not beastly hot, it was pouring rain.  My weather radio kept blasting multiple alerts for severe storm warnings day after day.  I call it my daily dose of terror.

 The humidity affects the drying time.  I needed ventilation for this segment of the project, and it was too humid to open the windows.  I had to paint a small area and then vacate the room because the fumes are not a good thing to be inhaling.

Now that I am coming up on the end of the sealing, I am starting to look at my options for making paper clay.  In past projects, I have made my own paper clay, and I expect to make it for this project also.  Years before the internet came to be, I purchased a book on craft glues, clays, paper mâché. and handmade paints.  I was planning on using one of those recipes because I am familiar with those processes.  There are plenty of recipes online as well for those that don't have access to old books.  I suggest looking at Jonni Good's The Ultimate Paper Mâché website.  There are recipes there.  She also sells books on Amazon.  Another good reference would be to watch Dragonfang's YouTube posts on making paper mâché pumpkins.  They both have a lot of good information.  (A word of warning if you are searching for Dragonfang.  There is also a Marvel character called Dragonfang, and your searches will bring up pages on character.  Search using the name Dragonfang along with the terms paper mâché and pumpkins.)

This week I will be choosing my clay recipe.  I am leaning towards one that uses toilet paper as a base for no other reason that it is already white.  Paper clays made using newspaper are a depressing gray color.  It needs extra coverage with gesso before painting.  

Next week I hope to have some photos of the clay and the first layer of the accessories for the animals.  

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the first pictures.

More on Carousel Painting - Part 48

 I was setting up the carousel this morning to take a picture for the blog when I realized that I had not painted the gold rim on the base that holds the rotating platform.  I also noticed that the floor that the animals will be on needed some touch ups.  I had painted it while it was upside down in order to keep it off the plastic I was using as a drop cloth while painting it.  When I turned it over the edge that was underneath did not get as much coverage as I would like.

So, it looks like at least another day or two of painting before this is finished.  I wish I had more time to work on it, but this is a hobby and the rest of life has more claims to my time.  I was particularly disappointed because I had planned to start getting out the stuff and starting to make the paper clay for the animal's decorations.  Barring an emergency, I will be starting on it within a week.  

The wooden cut out of a witch and cauldron tacked up on the wall is my inspiration for my next Halloween piece.  I always like to keep another project in mind while finishing up a project.  Having another project lined up helps keep me motivated when a project I am working on is dragging.  I need to finish it so I can get on to the next one.

I find that when I complete a project that I first experience the glow of excitement that comes with successfully completing something.  That is followed by a letdown as I see how much better I could have made the project.  While viewers of a project tend to look at the whole thing at once, I look at the project inch by inch and see all the things I might have been able to do differently.  Once I have gone beyond those feelings, I sometimes have a sense of emptiness, as if the muse has gone and I am alone.  (Actually, muse is a very old term used for an inspirational spirit that is motivating a male, the word damon < yes, spelled with an a > is used for an inspirational spirit motivating a female, but not as many people are familiar with that term.)  I have in the past experienced this feeling of inspiration having left, and it is actually emotionally painful.  You worry that inspiration may never come again.  I keep some future project in mind just so that I have something to focus on so I will not have to feel as if I have no ideas about what to do next.  I may not even start with that project if another idea pops up, but at least I have something to keep ideas churning.  

Anyway, I am looking forward to finally finishing this part of the project and getting on to making the animals saddles, blankets, and bridles.  I hope to be blogging about making the paper clay.  Check back next week on Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.  

Closing in on a Milestone on the Carousel - Part 47

 I have put in another three hours on painting the carousel.  Painting the carousel has been much more time consuming than I thought it would be. Aside adding a final coat of paint to the top of the carousel platform I gave two coats of gesso to the rims of the top and bottom platforms.  The top edge of the platform has received its first coat of gold paint.  It needs a second and perhaps a third coat of the 14-carat gold paint in order for it to gleam richly.

Regular readers are probably wondering where all the stars are that I was drawing on the stencil I planned to make.  Funny story about that.  The stars are now in limbo.  I was visiting my mother, and I was telling her my plan to use the stars as a means of making sure the top and bottom platforms to line up with the proper holes.  My husband spoke up at that point and said that I did not need to do that.  The screws that hold the top platform to the internal support are set in a pattern and the top will only join the support if the screw holes line up.  Yes, of course they do, so it begs the question of whether or not I need to put stars on the top.  

I guess my main concern is that it might make the carousel look too gaudy.  I want to keep the focus on the carousel animals.  I have decided to hold off on the stars until after the animals are added to the carousel.  If it looks as if it needs more embellishments after that, then I have the plan for the stars more or less ready to go.  I might need to add some more smaller stars to the pattern for the stencil before I cut it.

I was hoping to have the painting finished before this post, but the spare time to work on it just was not there.  It will definitely be finished this week though.  I am so slow these days.  Everything takes me much longer than I think it should.  So, this carousel has been made and painted step by step and inch by inch for however long it takes.

Readers may wonder why I keep changing my mind on things.  That really is the way the creative process works.  Some people start a project with everything worked out in exact detail of what they want to create.  Others, such as I, prefer to have a basic idea of what they want and let the decorative details develop by looking at the piece and asking what wants to be there; letting the space inform me of what it needs.  This allows for an artist to follow flow, which I have found to be essential to creating something that has a special feel to it.  

One more week of painting will finish off that segment of creating the carousel.  Then I can get back to the joy of working on the details of the carousel animals.  Making the animals has been the best part of this project and I am so looking forward to making and adding their decorations and painting them.  That is the last step before putting the carousel together.  It has been a long time coming to this point.  So, hang in there with me readers and I will be on to that shortly.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

Painting the Top Platform of the Carousel - Part 46

 I am still painting the carousel.  I know my readers are getting tired of waiting for me to finish this part so I can get on with working on the carousel animals again.  But this is how it is sometimes on a long project.  There is a lot of work that needs to be done and the only way to get to the next section is to just continue to work on it until I get through it.  However, I am very close to completing this part of the project.  The top of this platform is the last piece that needs to be painted.

I need to put one more coat on the top of this platform.  There is a section in the center that did not cover well.  My brush was a little too wet, and the center has an area that did an area that did not coat evenly.  I had hoped to get that last coat of paint on yesterday, but it was very humid and that paint took a long time to dry.  I finally had to stop watching paint dry and just get on with my day.  

I did not want to leave the top painted a plain blue.   At one time I had thought about maybe putting a circus tent like top on it but decided that it was already very tall and I did not want to add any more height to it.  However, I did not want to leave it plain so I thought about how I might decorate the top while the paint was drying.

I also had another situation that I needed to address before I went any further with painting.  Regular readers may recall that earlier on in the project holes needed to be drilled through the top and floor platforms so that the poles for the animals could go through them.  The holes were drilled in both platforms at the same time so that they would match up appropriately.  My husband had the forethought to add a couple of registration marks so that I would have an easy way to make sure that the holes were aligned properly.  Slight differences in where the holes were drilled means that not just any hole would do, but the holes that were drilled together must be together to keep the animals perpendicular to the base platform, floor platform, and ceiling platform.  A small variation could cause the pole to lean slightly, which would put extra torque on the pole.  That could cause a pole to snap.  

The registration marks need to be transferred to the carousel permanently.  If I ever need to take it apart, it would be much easier with the registration marks to put it back together again.  So, the question was how to incorporate them into the decorations without them being overly obvious. I decided that the marks would be painted on, but that each mark would be attached to a small star.  One star would be painted at one point, and two stars at the other registration mark with two lines.  If I paint stars all over the top, the small stars and registration marks will not be as easily spotted.

I did not want to just randomly paint stars on the top because I did not want to paint it and then decided that it does not look right.  That would be a lot of sanding and repainting.  So, I pulled out my pattern that has been utilized many times throughout this project.  If you look closely, you can see some of the stars drawn on it.  I decided it would be better to make my mistakes there where I could erase something I did not like.  Once I get the layout to my level of satisfaction, (Or to my acceptable level of dissatisfaction) I will make a stencil and use that to transfer the markings to the top platform.  It is an extra step, but I try not to underestimate my ability to mess something up at the last moment.  I am more of a maker than a painter.  

There will be at least one more week of watching paint dry, and then I will finally be on to working on the animals again.  Some readers might have wondered why I just kept slogging through the painting rather than stop and work on an animal once in a while.  The answer is that the saddles, blankets, and bridles will be made from paper clay.  I was planning on making my own paper clay.  The clay does not keep all that well, and it would have meant making multiple batches of paper clay.  It would be more work and resources to make multiple batches.  Even though the painting has been a bit of a grind, it was better for me to just make the accessories all at once.  The main thing that you have to remember on a long project is that it is mainly a matter of showing up to do the work.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

Sorry, No Progress This Week -Situations - Post 45

 This week has been unusually hot and humid.  We have been under an Extreme Heat Alert for days.  This area has also been under a Code Red or a Code Purple air quality alert for days from wildfire smoke.   It has been too much to do more than try to breathe and stay cool.  I became somewhat dehydrated and was not feeling well.  I did not realize what was wrong until I stopped sweating and started feeling dizzy when the electricity went out for about four hours during a thunderstorm.  

The heat is supposed to drop today and tomorrow.  I hope to have some quality time in my studio this week.  

Again, sorry for not having anything on the carousel to post this week.  Check back Monday or Tuesday for the next post.

Painting the Carousel Platforms - Part 44

It has been a hot and rainy week here and I spent quite a bit of indoor time painting the carousel platforms this week.  It has been slow going.  I am using acrylic paint, and each piece has needed at least two coats of paint.   The floor platform seen in this picture in green will need a third coat.  I spent about six hours painting on it this week.

In the interest of getting this project done sometime in the next few months, I decided to give up on my grandiose plans for the column of the carousel.  As I blogged last week, my husband needed to be able to see where the central hole was marked for the top platform before I started to paint.  At first, he planned only to drill the main hole but ended up drilling and placing all the screws and made sure the platform was level.  At that point he suggested leaving it together and painting it as it was.  

That was easier said than done.  The platforms are about sixteen inches (40.64 cm.) apart.  I had to hold the platforms on an angle, or duck down and look underneath the top platform in order to paint the column.  The platforms are made from plywood and they are heavy.  And of course, the platforms are round, so they wanted to roll when I held them up on an angle.  So, it was not easy to paint when it was all put together.

Anyway, I decided that I would decorate the central column with spiraling lines and paint the lines as if they were covered with colored lights.  This photo does not show the lights very well, but up close they are very bright.  I used neon paint left over from another project.  The lights are painted orange, green, yellow, and gold.

I still need to paint the lights around the top of the column.  I just ran out of time.  Also, my hand was getting sore after two days of painting.  I needed to rest it for a while.  

There are still more areas that need painting.  Besides the third coat to the bottom of the platform and the lights at the top of the column, I need to paint the rims of all three platforms, these two shown here and the bottom platform that will hold the rotating platform.  I have been holding off on painting the rims because they have some key marks on them to let me know which top and bottom holes go together when I add the animals and their poles.  The platforms were drilled at the same time, and slight variations in where the holes are drilled would make it difficult to keep the animals upright unless the two platforms are properly aligned.  Once the platforms are finished being painted, I will be decoratively repainted on the platforms so they will be there permanently in case I ever need to take the carousel apart.  

I also need to paint the top of the upper platform.  That platform has not been painted yet other than the little knobs.  I painted them while I had the gold paint out for the platform.  The knobs on top are there to help hold the poles upright.  I probably have at least five hours of painting left to finish up this section.  

This is where I left off for the week.  Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

Paper Mâché Carousel - Attaching the Column - Part 43

This week was a holiday weekend.  I did not get very much done on the project.  I spent hours in the kitchen rather than in the studio.  At this point in life, I would have to say that cooking up something "special for the holidays" is highly overrated.   

Apart from that, the weather has been so hot that it has been too hot to go into the studio.  The real temperature was 102 F (38.88 C) and the heat index (feels like) temperature was 110F to 120 F) (43-48 C).  Even with air conditioning, which ran non-stop for three days, it was too hot to stay in the room.  Just standing there was causing me to break out into a sweat.  It was miserable outside and inside.  All we could do was sit in front of the fan and try to stay hydrated.  It really was not conducive to getting anything done.

The only thing that was accomplished on the carousel this week was that the floor and ceiling of the carousel are now attached with screws.  I had thought that my husband was just going to just drill one center hole in the ceiling plate at this point so we would know where to attach it to the center of the column. However, he ended up drilling all the screws in because it was too difficult to make sure everything was level and plumb with it only having one screw in it.  

We did assemble the whole carousel to make sure the holes were keyed to its matched set. When the floor and ceiling were drilled, they were drilled together all at once.  Slight variations in the drilling meant that I had to make sure that the holes that were meant to be together were still paired or else the animals' poles would not be completely upright.  Too much of a slant could cause the pole to break or the ball on the underside to drag at a poor angle.  After all that, my husband suggested I just leave the column together and paint it with the ceiling in place.  I did not get a picture of it together again.  Working in a really hot room was not conducive to thinking about taking pictures.   

I guess this means I will be painting the column very simply just due to the difficulty of trying to paint while ducking my head under the ceiling platform.  Sometimes simpler is better anyway.  I have a new idea and I think it will look great and keep from distracting from the animals.  

Check back next Monday or Tuesday and see how the painting turns out.

Paper Mâché Carousel - Painting the Platforms - Part 42

 This week I have been working on painting the platforms for the carousel.  It takes much longer to paint than I would like.   

Each of the platforms is in a different stage of painting.  Even though the plywood was sanded before painting, it still was rougher than surfaces I normally use for painting.  I think I have worn out a brush from scrubbing the paint into the striations in the wood.

This photo shows the underside of the base for the carousel.  It has received its final coat of green.  The wooden ball feet have been painted with two coats of 14 karat gold paint.  

The red spot on the right is where the cord will come through from the other side of the platform where the rotating platform will sit.  It is lined with wool felt to keep the cord from rubbing on the wood.  I will also add some electrical tape around the cord for extra protection.

I still need to seal the paint.  I will use varnish as a sealer.  I hope to get all the platform painting finished (or at least most of it) before I start on the sealer coats.

This photo shows the ceiling side of the upper platform.  It needs another coat of paint.  After the two coats of gesso, I painted it with Prussian Blue.  I was actually thinking of doing a night sky with stars but decided it was too dark.  I painted over that with Cerulean Blue, but it needs another coat of paint.  I am thinking of mixing a little Titanium White with it to lighten it up a little more.  

The other side of this platform will be the roof of the carousel.  I have not done any painting on that yet.  I still need the holes drilled for the screws that will hold this platform to the central column.  

Hopefully those holes will be drilled today.  The temperature today is fairly moderate at 86F.  For the next few days after that it will be 100 to 103F (39.44C).  We are well into a blazing summer here.

The central column with its paper mâché outer column has received a second coat of gesso.  At least you can no longer read the words on the newsprint that was used to make the external column.

It has come down to crunch time on making a decision on how to decorate this part of the carousel.  I have gone through so many possibilities of how to paint this.  Things I have considered are adding mirrors to reflect the horses, painting a forest scene, painting it to look like a tree trunk, and adding gilded pieces to make frames and painting something in the frames.  

There are so many ways to go.  One part of me wants to make this a really ornate carousel.  The other part of me says to simplify the column and keep the main focus on the animals and how they are decorated.  At this point, simplifying is winning.  I really want to get finished with the painting so I can get on to decorating the animals and getting them set onto the carousel platform.  I have been working on this project for over a year now.  I would like to see it completed.

Once again, I am showing the photo of the first test of the movement of the carousel.  It helps me to see what I am working towards.   The animals go up and down and the platform rotates.  

The animals have not yet been painted.  The carousel has two horses, a tiger, a ram, and a rabbit.  I want to add some flowers, blankets, and saddles to them before painting.  There is still quite a bit of work to do on them.  

This is all the progress I made this week.  Check back next week on Monday or Tuesday for the next update.

Paper Mâché Carousel - Central Column Support Completed - Part 41

Today I have pictures of the wooden support in the center of the carousel.  As many of my long-time readers know, my husband has been helping me with cutting the wooden pieces.  This project would never have gotten off the ground if it was not for his help in cutting the wood and giving me some technical advice. Thankfully, he is able to translate my description of what I want into something that will work.  Once again, his timely advice saved the day.  More on that below.

The blog may look a little choppy today.  I have more pictures to show than text.  I used to be able to place the pictures where I wanted them, but something has changed and I have not had time to figure out why I cannot move the pictures around like I used to do it.  

This photo is the wooden central support column that will go

inside the paper mâché column.  It has been screwed into the platform which the animals will be on.  This is two 2x4 pieces screwed together.  The corners of the blocks have been cut down to allow it to sit inside the column.

Technically, the paper mâché column is strong enough on its own to support the weight of the top platform of the carousel.  The wooden central column has more to do with making sure that the platforms will turn in tandem.  The poles that the animals are on must stay straight up and down.  If the ceiling platform should get out of sync with the floor platform, it could

cause the wooden poles to break.

This photo shows the wooden column from the top down so you can see how the corners have been shaved to fit it into the paper mâché column.  It is slightly narrower than the external cylinder.

The next photo shows the underside of the floor platform.  It has already been painted.  Four screws have been drilled through the platform and into the block of wood shown in the picture above.  

The screws are counter-sunk into the wood.  This platform will be mounted to the rotating platform, and I did not want the heads of the screws to be causing a problem.  

I will be blogging more on how I mount this platform to the rotating mechanism in a future post.  

This side was chosen to be the underside because of the blemishes in the wood.  Once everything is put together this will be completely hidden.

The last photo, shown below, shows the paper mâché column sitting over the wooden support.  You can see that the wooden column tops the paper mâché column by about a quarter inch (6.35 mm).  I had thought that it should be even with the top of the column, but my husband said no on that.  He reminded me that wood shrinks and swells and that had to be accounted for in the planning.  Right now, we are in summer and there is a lot of heat and humidity so the wood is in its swollen stage, so it is a little higher than it might be in winter.

All in all, it is probably a good thing that it is a little higher.  the wooden piece is level.  The paper mâché column is somewhat (mildly) off level.  I may need to add some shims here and there.

My husband suggested that I figure out some way to add trim to cover up that small gap.  I have not totally figured that out yet, but I am not worried about it.  I just look at as a new layer of embellishment to be added to the carousel.  Where there is a will, there is a way.

The paper mâché column has been glued to the floor layer.  I will be painting it in place.  The top platform will be resting on the column and screwed into the wood as the bottom platform was.  The top of the paper mâché column will not be glued to the top platform.  It will only be held in by screws.  That way, if I need to take the carousel apart for any reason, the top platform can be lifted off easily.

That is it for today's blog post. Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next update.

Paper Mâché Carousel - More Layers and Primed - Part 40

More progress on the column for the carousel.  I know it seems as if I have been working on this section for a long time.  I guess it has been at least three or four weeks that I have been working on this one section.  This week I added the last layers of paper mâché. 

After the last layers were dry, I headed outside to sand it.  I needed to smooth some of the rough edges.  It is not a great time of year to be outside sanding.  Although it was still fairly early in the morning, it was 92૦ F (33.33 C).  The outside workbench was in full sun, and I was wearing an N95 mask and eye protection.  I felt like I was roasting out there.  

I did not spend as much time on sanding the inside of the cylinder.  Once the carousel is put together, it will not be seen.  So, I sanded enough to get it fairly smooth, but there are a few rough spots here and there.

Right not it only has one layer of primer on it.  I generally give my pieces two layers of primer.  The print slightly shows through on the first layer.  If I were using an exterior primer I might have gotten away with one coat.  However, I am using an acrylic primer to make sure it works well with the paints I will be using.  Maybe that is overkill, but my thinking is if you build it like you wanted to last a hundred years, it just might.

The bottom of the cylinder is not painted.  I want to be able to glue that to the wooden platform.  At least that is the plan for the moment.  I am not sure that is going to be necessary as the piece that will hold the top and middle platforms together will actually be screwed into a center wooden piece.  

I will blog more on that soon.  The good news is that it is ready for that part to be added.  The bad news is that I have to wait for my husband to cut that piece.  He only wants to do it on a day when he is already working outside. However, I really need to have everything ready before this piece is added.  Otherwise, I will be having to take it apart and put it back together again multiple times.  

I have already put the carousel together once (minus the internal column support) to test the revolving mechanism with the platforms.  It is not that easy to put together.  I will blog more about that when I put the carousel together for the final time. 

My husband was a little aggravated that I did not have him cut this wooden piece when I had him cut the platforms.  I had to tell him that until all the layers of paper mâché were in place that I did not know what that final measurement was going to be.  It is surprising just how much depth six layers of paper mâché will add to the project.  

The wooden piece needs to be exactly even with the top and bottom of the cylinder in order for the top platform to sit on it without being wobbly and have no gaps between the cylinder and the top and bottom platforms.  

This photo is the underside of the platform where the animals will be mounted.  It has had a coat of primer, and this is the first coat of acrylic paint.  I decided to start painting here to see just how problematic the painting of the plywood platforms might be.  I chose this piece for the underside because it has low spots here and there.  Once the carousel is put together, it will not be seen.  

In an effort to keep costs down, he was using some leftover scrap plywood from one of his projects.  It is not in the greatest shape.  Even after sanding it was still pretty rough.  The other platform pieces are in better condition.

Anyway, I had to scrub the paint into the plywood.  The grain of it did not take the paint well.  It gave the platform a very marbled look.  I will be giving it a second coat.  In a way, I kind of like the marbled look.  It reminds me of sun and shade playing across the grass.  I will see what happens after the second coat.  

I want to get the platform pieces painted before I start on the decoration and painting of the animals.  I am glad to be getting to that point.  It feels as if I have been working on this forever.  In fact, I started on this last June.  This is the longest, most difficult project I have ever worked on.  I enjoy my time working on my projects, but sometimes it feels like wading through mud.  Mostly that is because I want to get to the parts that I really enjoy rather than working on everything that needs to be done that are not as much fun.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

More Pâper Mâché on the Column - Part 39

 I am back from my vacation and once I caught up on everything that needed to be done, I started working on the carousel again.  When I left off last blog post, I had added the top and bottom pieces of the carousel and had covered them with tape.  This week I have been working on covering those areas with paper mâché.  I know readers are tired of seeing the same picture, but this is a photo of the column with four layers of paper mâché on it. I still have two to go.

The first layers top and bottom were added by the regular strip method of applying paper mâché.  It took a long time and is partly why I did not finish all the layers this week.  After that, I decided to work smarter not harder and figured out a different way to add the paper mâché layers.  

Anyone that works with paper mâché will tell you that the first layer is the hardest one to get on because it has more difficulty adhering to the surface.  That was one of my reasons for wanting the first layer to be done it strips.  Working in small pieces made it easier to get each strip pasted down well.  

As I blogged in an earlier post, I had originally planned to have the top and bottoms of the column added as trim pieces that were not connected to the main column.  I changed my mind midstream on that because the ring of the column did not have a large enough gluing area for when it is attached to the platform.  By attaching the trim to the column, it gives a much larger gluing area.

To speed up the process, I decided that using large circles of newsprint would be the quickest way to get this piece finished.  I used a compass to draw circles that were larger than the column.  I folded the circle of paper in half and then in quarters so that I would have some reference lines to find the center of the circle.  I snipped a small line with scissors to have a starting point.

At this point I want to digress for a minute to tell you about my method for keeping my work surface clean while working on paper mâché pieces of this size.  As you can see from the photos, I have my work surface covered with plastic to protect the table.  At this point I placed a piece of Press and Seal over the plastic where I was working.  (Press and Seal has a waxy coating on one side that allows it to be pressed down firmly to stay in place.) I lay the circle down on the Press and Seal area and spread paper mâché paste on one side.  Then I flipped it over and spread paste on the other side.  Then I covered the top, rim, and part of the side of the column inside and out with paste.  After that, I gently lifted my pasted circle of paper and centered it on the column. 

(When I finished with pasting the circles on the Press and Seal, I can just pull up the plastic, fold it up and throw it away.  My work surface is still nice and clean and does not have any of the little flour paste pieces that flake and get everywhere as the paste dries.  Getting rid of the paste leftovers quickly means the work surface stays clear and is less of a mess to clean up before the painting begins.)

Once the circle was centered on the column, I used more paste to smooth the circle onto the column.  When that was firmly attached, I used a pair of old scissors (do not use good scissors for this) to cut along the reference lines I had folded into the paper up to the edge of the column.  The little snips I had made in the center made it easy to find the reference lines under all the paste.  So, I cut the lines all the way to the edge of the column, then folded the triangular pieces down onto the inside of the column and made sure they were pasted down well.  The inside was not as neat as the outside and has a few wrinkles, but no one will ever see it.

Next, I burnished the paper to the rim of the trim pieces using more paste to make sure that the rim was secured well.  At this point the circle still spread beyond the base of the trim.  I used scissors to make small cuts around the paper circle so that I could fold in small pieces of the edge to the underneath side of the trim and down the side of column.   I wish I had taken a picture of that step.  This explanation is not great.  I guess the best I could compare it to would be to use a sewing term.  In garment sewing, they tell you to trim the seam and clip the curves using small cuts on the edge of the fabric to allow the fabric to bend around a curve.  That is what I am trying to explain here.

I suppose people that work with paper mâché are wondering why I used scissors rather than tearing the paper.  Most people know that scissors will leave a hard edge on the project while tearing creates a deckled edge that does not leave a hard edge.  In this case, the paper circle was very moist from having the paste put on while lying on the table and then being worked around the inside, upper edge and rim.  When I tried to tear it, the paper started coming apart and little pieces were being pulled off.  The cuts will only show on the underside of the rim.  Most people will not be examining the carousel that closely and will never see them.  If I find I cannot live with the hard edges, I will cover over them with a torn piece of paper so that they will not show.

Anyway, two more layers of paper mâché to go on the trim and one more layer on the column go and this portion will be finished.  The edges of the column trim are a little lumpy.  It will need some sanding before it is primed.  

People sometimes wonder why everyone says to use six layers of paper mâché.  One reason for that is because if you are sanding and hit a layer where there is a bubble under the surface, or a large lump that needs to be sanded down to flat, that you have enough layers to do that without sanding down to the original surface.  It also has to do with weight bearing in some cases.  If the piece is not strong enough, it could crush when weight is added.  Also, if you are cutting a piece off a mold, you have to have enough layers that the pieces will not curl.  Three layers and the cut pieces will curl inward and be really difficult to work with.  Four layers and they will curl and have to be pried back into shape to glue the parts together.  (Scroll back to my pumpkin blogs to see more on this.)  At six layers, the pieces will curl less and hold their shape.  It makes it much easier to glue the edges together.  Hope that is informative for those new to paper mâché.

So that is about it for this week.  Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

Next Step for the Carousel - Part 38

I am sorry that I have no new carousel pictures this week.   I have added a couple of forest pictures though.  My husband and I decided to take an impromptu vacation.  We had planned to go to the mountains over the Memorial Day weekend, but the weather report was calling for such bad weather that we decided to reschedule it.  When the weather cleared and the forecast was nice, we decided to jump on it and just pick up and go.  That did not leave me any time to work on the carousel this week.  So the project is still where I left off last week.

 

 So, still six layers of paper mâché to go on the central column.  I will need to decorate it before it is installed on the platform.  I guess that means another trip to my local craft store.  

I have two visions for the decoration of the central column, and I have not yet settled on which one to use.  One idea is to have some Johnny Cake faces and mirrors framed with small scroll work to reflect the animals.  The other idea is to paint some type of forest scene on it.

Both ideas have some problems. Since the column is round, any mirrors would have to be fairly narrow or else they will not fit on the surface well.  I did not have that problem on my last carousel because it had a square central column.  Commercial scroll work pieces may be too large to fit flat on the column, but I could custom make the pieces to fit using paper mâché clay.  It really comes down to what is available and how much work I want to put into the project.  Sooner or later I need to get this thing put together.

 My idea for the forest scene would be something like these pictures I took while up in the mountains.  My main problem is the painting of it.  Although my painting skills have improved somewhat, I am not sure I could paint it well enough.  While I am beyond painting trees that look like lollypops, I am not sure I could do it well enough that it would not be a distraction from the animals.  

I suppose a third option would be to just decoratively paint it with stars and scrolls.  It might be the easiest thing to do.  It might be less distracting than anything else. 

The column will be glued to the platform and will rotate as the carousel turns.  Anything that is behind an animal is going to be behind it permanently.  I would prefer the mirrors if I can get them to fit on the column.  They would reflect the far side of the animal.  

I suppose that if I made a backing out of clay that was rounded enough to fit column, but had a flat surface on the front I could glue the mirror to that.  Hmmm.... I may have to experiment with that. In any case, the worst that can happen is that I have to get another oatmeal box and start over on that part of the project.

Some people may wonder why I don't have more of a plan before I start.  I just prefer to work free form and create what strikes me at the moment.  Working spontaneously allows me to bring forth a better project that working from some set in stone plan.  There are some parts of the project that must be exactly placed, such as the bumps that will make the animals go up and down, but in other places I can just play.  Imagining and playing are the best part of the project for me.  

 The photo below shows the ram.  I think he came out well.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next bog post.

Paper Mâché Carousel - More on Creating the Column - Part 37

This week I have been working more on creating the central column.  I wanted to have some trim on the top and base of the column to give it some more gluing area and to cover the join between the base and ceiling platforms.  I went through a couple of changes on how I wanted to make it, but I think this change will make it work better.  At first, I envisioned the trim pieces as a separate piece, but I think it will work better as something made as an integral part of the column.  It will give me more gluing area when I attach it to the base.

I will show another picture of the column in a minute in a different photo.  But, for now, I will start with making the trim pieces.  I started by tracing around the column on a piece of cardboard.  That would be the inner circle.  

It is hard to see in the picture, but I made some registration marks on the inner circle and corresponding marks on the column.  These will make it easier to make it fit on the column.  Slight variations in the thickness of the paper mâché layers, and slight cutting errors make it harder to match up the column and trim without the registration marks.

I measured the diameter of the inner circle and marked the center.  Then I used a compass to draw the outer circle.  The registration marks were then transferred to the inside of the outer circle.  Then I cut out the inner circle and outer circle with a sharp craft knife.  

I made four of these circles.  The cardboard was not thick enough in a single layer, of I used two circles taped together to form a single layer to make it as thick as I wanted.  The registration marks were remarked on each layer of the tape.

In the upper portion of this photo, the base of the column is shown with the first set of rings taped to it.  

The column and rings matched up easily when using the registration marks.  The column of the cylinder was made using a repurposed oatmeal container.  Scroll back to previous posts to see that being covered in paper mâché.  If you cannot scroll back, you can go to this blog's URL which is folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com  

So here is the column with both sets of the trim attached.  Each end is double taped to make prevent water infiltration into the cardboard from the paper mâché paste.  I always double tape because I have had some unfortunate experiences in previous projects when the paste was too moist and the carboard soaked it up.  

The angle used when taking the photo makes it look as if the top trim is larger than the base.  That is just a property of the photo.  The trim pieces are actually the same size top and bottom.

There are a couple of places that are not exactly in the round due to small cutting errors.  They can be built up later with layers of paper mâché strips.  The areas are so small that it was not worth the effort of cutting out two more circles.  When the carousel is finished, it won't even be noticeable.

I just added a picture of the carousel that I took when I was testing the rotating mechanism.  It gives you an idea of what I am shooting for with the central column.  

This coming week I will be working on the paper mâché layers that will make the trim a permanent part of the column.  Maybe I will have a chance to at least get the primer coat on it.

Anyway, that is my stopping point for this week.  I am getting very excited.  Now that I have all the major pieces ready, I can start decorating and painting the animals.  I want to add saddles, bridles, flowers, and ribbons to the animals using paper mâché clay.  I will probably be making the clay myself, so stay tuned for more information on that part of the project.  

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.