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.
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