Parts are Here - Getting the Carousel Project Back on Track

 So, apologies for no post last week.  I was surprised to find that the last blog post had been saved as a draft rather than published when I signed on to do the blog today.  There was not much to report.  It was mainly a rant about delayed shipping of items I needed for the carousel and about the wretched weather we have been having.  We had another snowstorm last week and are expecting freezing rain and snow once again tonight into tomorrow.

The good news is that the rotating base for the carousel arrived just yesterday.  It took a couple of weeks for it to arrive.  Some combination of bad weather and parts not in local warehouses had keep it in limbo for 15 days.

The rotating base will sit on top of a wooden circle that will hold the shaped wooden bumps that will make the animals go up and down.  

A second wooden circle will sit on top of the rotating base.  The carousel animals will be mounted on that level.  A center column will hold up the roof.  I may or may not need extra supports on the edges of the roof.

A third circle will form the base for the roof of the carousel. I plan to put a tent type top made of paper mâché over that.  

I suppose that the good part of having the parts delayed was that it has given me time to rethink how the animals will be mounted onto the posts that will hold them up.  I am not sure that it was going to work as I had thought in my original plan.  I think I was missing a piece that needed to be there.  More experiments will follow.  

This photo shows the cat with a brace underneath it.  The cat does not stand on its own.

I am also considering whether I want to replace the cat and rabbit with the two horses on the carousel.  The cat and rabbit may end up as freestanding sculptures.  At one point I had considered making two carousels, one with horses and one with animals.  However, I am losing time on this project and really need to get a carousel finished.  I have so many other projects that I want to get started on, and I do not want to start another one with this project unfinished.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next post.