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.

Testing and Fine Tuning the Base - Part 28

 I gave the base its first test.  It was difficult and I hope my post today will save my readers some time and aggravation should anyone decide to try it.  The problem can be described as "which came first the chicken or the egg."  The test was difficult because the bumps were only held down by tape.  The other part was that without the rest of the structure built, holding the ball and stick in its proper position was not easy, the stick kept shifting position.  And a third problem is that since the platform that would hold the animals was not yet glued to the rotating platform, the drag from the ball sliding across the bumps pulled the base off center.  So, we had to come up with a solution.  My husband and I had to come up with a way to test the design.  We knew that it could require some fine tuning.  But I am getting ahead of myself here let me back up a step and to from there.

This photo is a showing the top two carousel platforms taped together with the pattern on top.  The holes were drilled through both pieces at once.  My husband also added a few registration marks so they could be matched up again in case it became a problem later and it was important to use the holes matched together with their original partner.

We tried to use them with the first test by setting the rotating stand in place and putting the ball and stick between the platforms and turning the rotating platform on while holding the stick in place by hand.  That did not work.  The tape was not strong enough to hold down the bumps, and the drag of the ball and stick pulled them up and out of line.  Without the internal pillar that will be the main support of the roof holding up the third platform, we could not get the stick to stay upright and the ball in the center of the bump.  I will also add that we had not yet drilled the hole to make the stick fit into a ball and were using an unglued prototype. 

We knew that the bumps, cut from a 2x4 plank would need a little fine tuning.  It was better to cut them a little large and cut them down as needed.  We had to make sure they were in correct position before we made any cuts.  My husband came up with the solution.  We place the two platforms with the pattern on top of the rotating platform and put a flashlight on top of a hole.  The light shining through the hole showed where the stick would sit when it was straight up and down.  With that we were able to see where the bumps needed to sit for it to be going over the center of each bump.  My husband was able to determine which pieces needed to be cut or repositioned.  He put tape down on the wooden platform and marked each piece that was out of line.  

After that, he was able to cut a little off some of the pieces as needed to make them fit.  After that we did another flashlight test.  When all the pieces were deemed to be in line, I marked the positions and glued down the bumps and the center platform.  (In case you missed this in a previous post, it turned out that the rotating platform by itself was about a half inch too low for my project. The center piece is the workaround for that.)

I just wanted to say another word about the rotating display stand that I am using to turn the carousel.  It has an electrical plug.  It is not battery powered.  This platform comes with a remote control.  That was important for this project because it would be difficult (but not impossible) to reach under the carousel to turn it on and off otherwise.  It is weight rated for 45 pounds, so there should not be any issue with the weight of the plywood.  It also has some features that I will have no need for, such reversing the rotation and also having the rotation pause at degrees of your choosing, and more that I have not even played with yet.  

Anyway, with those tests complete, I marked the new positions and glued down the bumps and the platform for the rotating stand.  That is where I left off on the project this week.  I wanted to give the glue time to dry before going further.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the latest on the project.