Ordered/Purchased Parts for the Carousel

 The storm passed and almost all the ice has melted in the yard, and I ventured out for parts for the carousel.  My first trip was to my local craft shop.  Technically, I do not like this particular craft shop.  It is the size of a large grocery store, and you would think it had a lot of craft items for sale.  However, half the shop is seasonal products, paper goods, and home decor.  I guess that is what it takes to keep a craft shop open these days, but you would think that they would have a large selection of craft products.  Their craft products are minimal, and many items are frequently out of stock.  I was able to find some of what I wanted, but not everything I needed.  But I did manage to find some things, and I am ready to get started.

I have sketched out the deck where the carousel animals will be so I have an idea of where to place the animals and where the bumps that will make the animals go up and down will be placed. The cat is currently braced by a cardboard roll because it has two feet in the air and will not stand on its own.

The carousel will require three thin plywood circles.  The first level will be where the bumps will be placed and the motorized display stand that turns the carousel will be installed.  (I decided that I did not want to get into cutting out gears for this project.) I have ordered a multi-speed revolving display stand that comes with an electric plug and a remote control.  It should be here on Friday.  The display stand will be installed on the first plywood circle and be attached to the second circle.

The second plywood circle will be the deck that the animals are on.  The center will have a cardboard/paper mâché center post that will help support the roof.

The third plywood circle will be part of the roof.  The pinnacle of the roof will be paper mâché.  Which I hope to make look like the big top of a tent with a flag will be painted.  This project is getting more ambitious than anything I had originally planned.

The bumps will be made from a heavy cardboard tube sawn in half to make an arch, then cut into one-inch-wide pieces.  Each tube will have a plastic strip that will form a ramp leading up to the bump so that there will be a smooth transition on the up and down movements.  I may fill the inside of the arch for added support.

What I purchased at the craft store were the balls with holes drilled into them and wooden rods that will be inserted into the balls.  True to form, the ball with the correctly sized hole was sold out.  I had to purchase balls with smaller holes that will have to be drilled to fit.  That is the next step.

I still need to go to the hardware store to purchase the plywood and some brass rods.  The wooden rods will be inserted into the brass rods.  The brass rods will also be part of the supports for the wooden roof. At least I hope it will be brass rods.  It may come down to what they have in stock and how much brass rods cost these days.  

Anyway, the plan is set.  One more trip out for supplies, and I should be ready to put the plan in action.  Many thanks to my husband for his technical support.  I really am not very mechanically inclined and was feeling really intimidated by this part of the project.  I could not move forward until I had a plan for this part of the project.  I needed to know how it was going to move and how wide the holes would have to be that need to be drilled into the animal for the tubes.  Once this part of the project is built, I can get back to what I like best; paper mâché and the clay decorations for the animals.

I am sorry for the late post this week.  Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next post.

More Weather Disruptions - So Experimenting/Playing with Glue and Color for Future Mobile Project

 Severe winter storms have continued to disrupt my work on the carousel.  Although main roads were clear early on, it took twelve days to get to the neighborhood roads.  Days of temperatures in low teens to single digits Fahrenheit have kept the icy roads in place.  Schools started back in person just this past Friday and then had to release early due to another snowstorm.  A windstorm came through with forty mile per hour wind gusts.  The wind chill was below zero.  Some of the ice melted during the day and refroze night after night.  The yard is still mostly covered with snow and ice.

The icy streets and cold winds have discouraged me from going out to the craft store.  Until I do get out, my carousel project is at a standstill.  The good news is that we may have one more day of really cold weather before we return to what would be normal temperatures for this area.  Although I have felt frustrated about not working on the project, I found that what I really needed was a good rest.  Spending days with a book and a warm blanket have restored my sense of peace.  I have had a lot going on, and I had been pushing and pushing trying to get everything done.  I was worn out and running on caffeine and adrenaline. I did not even realize how burned out I was.  I feel much better now and I am looking forward to getting out and about.

In the meantime, I headed back into my studio to play around a little bit.  I had seen some posts on the internet of people making faux stained glass by using glue and food coloring.  I decided to give it a try.

I tried Mod Podge and food coloring for the first few pieces and later changed over to Elmers Multi-Purpose with food coloring for later experiments. (I had a lot more Elmer's than Mod Podge.)  I had a few questions that I hoped to learn.

• How well did the glue mixture look and peel off on different substrates
• How translucent was the piece
• Could you make complex shapes
• How flexible/strong were the pieces once peeled up
• Could you paint a different color over top of the first one 
• Could you scribe through the dots to make see through areas
• How did the dots react if decoupaged onto another piece of paper

Here are some of my findings. 

The large sheet of paper that most of the dots were on is a sheet of freezer paper.  I painted the dots and leaves onto the freezer paper with a paint brush.  The dots peeled up well and were fairly translucent.  The dots also easily peeled off a sheet of clear plastic report cover.  The downside was even though the food coloring and glue were thoroughly mixed, when the glue dried, the food coloring tended to pool in spots, making some areas darker than others.  This is most noticeable on the maple leaf.  The dots peeled off the plastic report cover but were streakier than ones painted on the freezer paper.  I also painted some of the dots on the plastic cover with gesso before painting with the glue.  They looked the worst of all, and the gesso did not peel off the plastic.  As expected, the dots did not peel off poster board, printer paper, or paper towel.

The dots painted on the paper towel were interesting.  I had used a two-ply paper towel.  The paint and glue mostly stayed on just the first layer, and the paper towel tended to crumple up as it dried.  I tried that experiment again with a single ply.  I made sure to paint it down firmly on the freezer paper.  It dried flat and was quite strong.  I feel that it could have a hole punched into it and it would stand up to being hung on a string.  The green color glowed nicely when held near a light but was not translucent enough to be see through.  

When the paper towel was held up to a light, (third photo) each piece glowed nicely, but pooling spots and streaks from the paint brush were visible.  Perhaps a different paint brush might have made a difference, but overall, the pieces were disappointing.

The oak and maple leaves peeled up nicely even though they had some narrow and pointed places.  I was able to paint another color over them without it running one color into another.

The shapes were not as flexible as I would have hoped.  There was some bend to them, but if too much pressure was applied, the piece would snap.  I was hoping that they would be strong enough to punch a hole in them and hang them on a string, and that might work, but the smeary streaky discs were not what I had hoped for as part of a project.

The pink dot near the center of the first picture was used to see if you could make see through areas.  Once the glue set up a little bit, I used the tip of a wooden skewer to carve through the dot.  The dot stayed together even when a spiral was carved into it.

And finally, I wanted to know how well the pieces would work if decoupaged onto another pieces of paper.  That was the big surprise.  In the second photo, you can see that when decoupage medium was used, the blue dots smeared across the page.  None of the other colors ran.  So be forewarned if you should try to use them on a journal page.  I had hoped that the dots would be translucent enough that you could see writing underneath them, but they were too opaque for that.  

I tried one other experiment, but so far that one has not worked out.  I wanted to know if I made a dam of hot glue and made it two layers high, how that would affect a deeper pouring of the glue mixture.  I checked it this morning and it was not a success.  The glue stuck to the hot glue and pulled up the shiny freezer paper.  I tried to push the dot off the paper, but after seventeen hours, the glue had not set up all the way.  I ended up just gushing sticky glue over my fingers.  I am leaving the other one until tomorrow, and I will try again to see if a thicker dot would look better than the thin ones.

All in all, I do not think the glue shapes would work on a project that I hope to make in the future.  I want to make a mobile of lightweight leaves that would swirl around in a breeze or when the air conditioner or heater turned on.  I had made a mobile with leaves made from air dry clay and painted with an air brush.  It looks okay, but the clay leaves are so heavy that air from the ac/heat is not strong enough to move it.  It only spins if you give it a push.  I am hoping to make a better one that will spin and sway easily one of these days.  I just have to find the right medium.

Anyway, it was a fun day or two of playing with glue and color just to see what they would do.  Soon I will be out to get the pieces I need to get on with the next stage of the carousel.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next post.

Winter Storm Disrupts my Plans

Our area has had a massive winter storm.  This storm started as snow, changed to hours of sleet, then hours of freezing rain.  Then the temperature dropped and everything froze solid.  We had between half to three-quarters of an inch of ice on everything.  The first couple of days after the storm, the sun would come out, and the temperature would come up to just a few degrees above freezing.  That caused some surface melting, which froze again as soon as the sun went down.  Everything turned to slick ice.  Then we settled in with days that temperatures never rose above freezing.  Our neighborhood looks like one big glacier.

I took this picture of the backyard this morning.  The yard is a solid sheet of ice.

The snowplows have been having a difficult time trying to clear the streets. Although the main streets are now clear, most neighborhood streets have not been plowed.  It is slick going on those roads.  My husband and I have been out only once to pick up some groceries and take some supplies to my mother.  A second storm was predicted to come through, but it stayed south of us.  Another storm is predicted for later this week.  

I was at the point of making a trip out to look for the items I needed to make the track for the carousel.  Due to the bad weather, the shopping trip has been postponed until there has been some significant ice melt.  Not all shopping center parking lots have been cleared.  It is not worth risking a slip and fall over some craft items.  I have not wanted to place an order online, because I was concerned that the ice could cause a delivery person to slip and fall.  I saw two of my neighbors have multiple slips and falls trying to traverse the frozen ice to bring in groceries.

Anyway, it has been good to take a break.  During this freezing weather mostly what I have wanted to do was drink something warm and curl up with a blanket and a good book.  The weather will clear sooner or later, and I will be back to working on the project.