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.

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.

Paper Mâché Carousel - Priming Continues

 There is not a lot to report this week.  I have been priming the plywood discs that make up the base, floor, and ceiling of the carousel.  Most of the discs are primed, with the exception of the top of the ceiling layer.  I have not yet determined how the top of the carousel will be decorated so I am holding off on that piece.

The only other disc that looks anything other than painted solid white is the layer that the animals will be on.  The center of this disc has a circular layer that is not painted like the rest.  I forgot that I needed to keep that layer clear in the center for now.  I painted it on the first coat and had to go back and sand that area to get some of the primer off.  I will need to sand a little more but decided that I would do that later.

The reason for keeping the center clear is that the central column will be glued in there.  This portion of the central column is mainly decorative.  The actual support for the roof will be inside the column.  I will blog more about that in another paragraph.  

At this point the center circle is larger than the column.  I have also accounted for the trim that will be glued around the column.  The area is still larger than what I expect the column and trim to occupy, but I wanted to leave plenty of room for gluing.  I will have to go back in and paint in the rest of the primer once the column is in place.

This is the central column as it is right now.  It is covered by three layers of paper mâché on the inside, and five layers on the outside.  It is very strong.  It could hold up the ceiling on its own, but I need a wooden piece on the inside that can be screwed into the base and ceiling to keep them rotating as one unit.  There will be a separate blog post on that when I get that far.  

For now, my plan is to build the trim onto the base of the column.  It will be made of cardboard and paper mâché.  It will be permanently attached on the base.  It needs to be attached with glue and paper mâché before it is primed and painted.

The top will also have trim, but at this time my plan is to attach the trim to the ceiling and just have the column fit into it rather than trying to glue it to the column.  That will help when it comes time to put it together and if I should ever need to take it apart again.  

Why would I want to take it apart again?  Who knows.  Maybe the rotating platform fails and needs to be replaced.  Or maybe I need to ship it somewhere and it will travel more safely if it is packed as flatly as possible and reassembled elsewhere.  If I had to transport it, my main concern would be for the dowels that the animals will be mounted on.  They are only a quarter inch (6.35 mm) thick.  I am concerned that a mishandled package could give it such a jolt that it could crack the dowels.  Maybe I am worrying over nothing, but I would hate to go to all this much work and have something break it.  The dowels could be replaced but it would be a lot of work to do that.

Anyway, that is where I left off on working on the project this week.  Look for the next blog post on next Monday or Tuesday.

Paper Mâché Carousel - Central Column and First Primer Coat - Part 35

The old saying is that something taking a long time is like watching paint dry.  Basically, I have been doing just that this week; watching paint dry and watching paper mâché dry.

I have been adding layers of paper mâché to the central column.  From the standpoint of a picture, it does not look as if much has changed from last week to this week.  However, if you were to see it in person it would look much thicker this week.  I now have two layers of paper mâché on the inside and three layers on the outside.  

I still need to add at least one more layer to the inside, and two more layers to the outside.  Although this piece will not be bearing the total weight of the roof, I still want it to be plenty strong.  I do not want the weight of the roof to deform the cylinder.

Each layer has taken about forty-five minutes to an hour to apply.  It does not look as if it should take that long for each layer, but part of it has to do with the difficulty factor.  This is a tall cylinder and trying to work on it was hampered by my being so short that I had to either stand up to see into it or hold it on a slant, which then wanted to roll.  

The time for each layer also included the prep time for tearing the paper to the correct size and prepping the flour paste.  If the paper is the correct size, it will be easier to smooth it onto the project without a lot of wrinkles.  Fewer wrinkles mean less sanding and fewer defects in the finished piece.

I find that making the flour paste mixture works best if given a few minutes to hydrate.  I stir it constantly during that time to get rid of any flour lumps.  That way I have a very few lumps in it and that cuts down on sanding time later in the project.  Sanding is my least favorite part of the process.

While waiting for the paper mâché to dry, I started to add the first coat of primer to the underside of one of the plywood bases. Clearly it needs a second coat.  

I am using Gesso as a primer.  All of the pieces will be painted with acrylic paints, so I decided to use a primer that I knew was compatible with the paints.  

So that is all the progress for this week.  It does not look like a lot of work, but really it was about four hours across multiple days.  At times like these, I just remind myself not to get frustrated with how slow the process can be sometimes.  When that happens, I just have to tell myself to focus on the next step.  As long as I just make the next step, I will be closer to finishing this project.  

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next update.

Next Step on the Carousel - Main Supports - Lining for Electrical Opening - Part 34

 I am reposting the picture of the carousel from last week because some readers may have missed it because the blog post was late.  Somehow, I managed to not hit the publish button.  I did not notice it until I signed on the blog on Thursday.  There are also more pictures after that to show what I have been working on this week.

I had just finished running my first test of the carousel with all the animals on it.  The test was to make sure the animals would all go up and down as planned and stay on the track.  It passed.  Nothing is screwed down or glued on yet, so things look a little out of kilter after the test.  Scroll back for the previous post for more details or folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com  

Now, on with the next steps that I worked on this week.

I began the paper mâché work on the oatmeal box that is the center support.  I removed the top and bottom from the oatmeal box and covered it with two layers of masking tape.

Yesterday I added the first layer of paper mâché to it.  Even using longer strips of newspaper, it took better than an hour to get it covered inside and out.  I will be putting on more layers, but it may take me a couple of weeks to get this part completed.

Once the cylinder has all of its layers of paper mâché, it will be painted and decorated.  I will be blogging more about that later.

Although the cylinder is strong enough to hold up the top platform on its own, this is not actually the main support for the carousel.  It is only decorative.  The central support column will be something else, but I will blog more on that later when I install it.

This is the underside of the bottom platform of the carousel.  I had my husband drill a hole through the platform so I could run the electrical cord for the rotating platform that turn the other two platforms. The plywood is pretty rough, and I was concerned that in time it might damage the insulation on the wiring.  I used some wool felt and lined the hole top and bottom.

I lined the top of the platform in the same way, then added an extra round piece of felt on top of that.  When I run the cord through it, I will probably cover that section of the cord with some electrical tape.

The platform in the center is where the rotating platform will sit.  Regular readers may remember from a previous post that my rotating platform was about a half an inch (1.27 cm) shorter than the humps that make the animals go up and down.  Adding the platform was my fix for that problem.

This is about all that happened this week.  Check back on Monday or Tuesday for the next post.  

Corrections on the Carousel - Part 32

It has been a week.  There is a lot going on now that Spring has arrived.  This week I have not had much time to put into my carousel project.  What time I did spend was working on fixing some problems that have cropped up.

Last week, I worked on drilling the holes in the animals so that they would be able to be mounted on their dowels.  That was a lot of work, and I had to give my hands a few days of rest before proceeding.  When I did finally get a chance to work on the next step, things just started to go a little wrong.  Fixable, but definitely some things needed change.

The problem started with the top layer of the carousel.  Regular readers may remember that there are small spheres that needed to be drilled to fit the dowels.  They were glued over holes that had been drilled in the plywood.  Their purpose is to help keep the dowels perpendicular to the other platforms.

I was assembling the animals and the layers of the platforms to give the carousel its full test run.  The previous tests on the carousel were done with only a couple of animals to make sure that the animals would stay on the track as planned.  The trouble started when I was tilting the top layer to insert the dowels.  Even though I had checked to make sure the drilled spheres were firmly attached before I started, they immediately started to roll when I started to push the dowels through.  The problem is that the spherical shape did not have enough gluing surface to give the spheres a firm hold.  So, I had to begin again on that segment.  I had to file off the old glue and then file down the bottom of each sphere to have a flatter gluing surface.  For good measure, I also used a thicker glue than before. That seemed to fix that part of the problem.  

I have not totally addressed the second part of the problem.  If you have been following this project from the beginning, you would know that I have had to make some changes from my original plans.  The main change was that I needed to downsize the carousel. I had originally planned to have two rows of three animals.  The problem was that to make that happen, the carousel was so large that I had absolutely nowhere to put it.  I cut the size down to eighteen inches in diameter and at first planned to use four animals, then decided that five animals looked better.  (In art, odd numbered gatherings look better than even numbered gatherings.)  So, I drew the pattern and my husband drilled in the five holes.  When I had set the animals out on the pattern everything looked okay, but it was only after the animals were mounted on the carousel that I could see the problem.

It was all fine until I started to put the animals on the carousel for the test.  I had wanted to use the two horses, the tiger, the ram, and the housecat.  It turns out the cat's tail is so long that it brushes the nose of the animal behind it.  I had also made a rabbit when I was making the six animals.  I think I can make it work if I substitute the rabbit for the cat.  The rabbit is a little less long and has a short fluffy tail.  The tiger may also be a little close to the other animals as well.  I did not get a chance to check that because by that time I was a little upset and thought it was better to quit for the day until I calmed down and had a little perspective on the problem.    I was really hoping that I would have a new picture to show you with all the animals on the carousel.  That is where I left off on the project this week.

So, the project is not ruined, it merely needs a little change to set things right.  I have a really busy week, and it is unlikely that I will even have a chance to work on it until the weekend.  I have some choices to make.  I can use the rabbit instead of the cat; I could cut off the cats tail and replace it with a differently shaped tail that would not be in the way; or I can change course and decide to make more horses and just have horses on this carousel and use the other animals on a smaller carousel.  I won't be able to decide until I can get back in the studio and work it out.    I will let you know in the next blog post. 

Check back Monday or Tuesday for the next post. 

  

The Next Step for the Carousel Animals - Part 31

 Today's post may seem a little short, but I have been working on this process for the past week.  I really made a lot of progress in small places, although I did not take as many photos.

Last week I was gluing up parts of the carousel including the wooden ball that sits on a dowel.  That ball end of the dowel is the part that will ride over the bumps to make the animals go up and down.  This week I wanted to get the animals ready for the dowel end that will be the pole to be able to go through the animals.  I had hoped to run an initial test with all the animals on the platform.  Unfortunately, getting the dowels through the animals was harder than I thought.

This is a view of the Ram, from above.  The ram was the hardest of the animals to make a hole in.  The ram's fleece was made from paper clay.  It felt like it was made from concrete.  I had been using an awl to poke through the initial hole on some animals, but this one was a no go on the ram.  I liked the awl because it was long enough that I was able to poke both the top and bottom pilot holes at the same time.  The paper clay was so tough that the awl could not be poked through it.  

I ended up pulling out a small hand drill that I keep in the craft room.  The good news was the drill was able to get through the paper clay with minimal effort and no additional damage.  The bad news is that it is a small drill and the drill bits were not long enough to go through and drill the second hole at the same time.  It took a lot of meticulous measuring to get the second hole in place.

This is the hole on the underside of the Ram.  The holes were not drilled that large to begin with on any of the animals.  I drilled smaller holes and then used a small round file to work on the holes to make them larger.  It required a lot of testing to make sure the holes fit the dowel firmly.  They needed to be large enough for the dowel to slide through the animal but tight enough to fit snugly for it to hold when it is glued to the dowel.

While I was filing, I had to keep checking to make sure the holes were in alignment.  So, it was filing the circle a little bit and check, file and check, repeat until done.  

I did this for all the animals.  The horses were easier because they were just paper mâché strips and flour paste.  The awl poked through those easily.  The ram, tiger, cat, and rabbit all had additional layers of paper clay to form their fur.  

Anyway, this is a picture of the ram on its stick.  It has not been glued to the stick yet as there is much work to do on all the animals before they are ready for permanent mounting.  They need to have the decorations added and painted before they are mounted for the last time. In this photo the stick is not perpendicular, just propped up against a lamp to give you an idea of how the animals will look.  

By the time I finished the last animal, I was pretty much ready to quit for the week.  It was enlightening as to how thick the paper mâché was.  I think it was nearly a quarter of an inch (6.35 mm) thick on both the back and belly of the ram.  I think that I will have plenty of area for gluing on this.

Anyway, that is the progress for this week.  Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

Working on Gluing Things Together - Carousel Project - Part 30

 This week I did not have a lot of time to work on the project, but I have started to glue pieces together.  Things are starting to move quickly on this project.

These pieces are the dowels that will hold the animals and the wooden knobs that will drive over the bumps that will make the animal go up and down.  The drilling was not perfectly sized, and I had to use a rasp on each one to get the final fit.  I also found that the dowels are not exactly symmetrical also.  

The dowels will be set aside until it is time to mount the animals on them.  It is another one of those "which came first the chicken or the egg moments."  I would like to go ahead and paint them while they do not have the animals mounted on them, but I have to glue the animals to the pole because the glue will not hold as well on paint.  As one person on the internet had explained in a video I watched years ago, "the hold of the glue would only be as strong as the hold of the last coat of paint."  His advice was spot on and although I no longer remember who that was, I would like to thank him for that piece of sage advice.

I am not sure I have mentioned the size of these round platforms recently.  Each of the plywood platforms is eighteen inches (45.72 centimeters) in diameter and one half inch (12.5 mm) thick.
  

The round, flat wheel shapes have been glued onto the second layer of plywood.  This layer is where the animals will be placed. They have been drilled out to slightly larger than the dowels (pictured above) because they are guides to help hold them straight up and down.  The dowels need to be able to move freely with no friction.  The dowels will be inserted upwards from below the platform and the knobs on the ends will rest on the bumps that make the animals go up and down.  

I might have preferred some differently shaped pieces here, but I wanted to use what I could find at the local craft store rather than trekking into the city to find better pieces at a wood working store.  

 This photo shows the third platform which forms the roof.  The dowels with knobs will come up from beneath the roof and poke through the holes in the knobs.  Once again, the knobs will help guide the dowel to keep going straight up and down.  I had actually thought that this might be a set of the wooden wheels would be underneath these knobs to make a more decorative look on this section, but I think that it made for a better glue joint without them.  The wheels are not flat on both sides.  One side has a small indentation in it leaving just a couple of thin areas that make for a very small gluing area.

At this point the dowels have not been cut to their final length.  I have not yet decided whether I want the dowels to be flush with the top of the knobs or whether I want to have them extend slightly higher than the knobs to show how the mechanism works.  

The main thing is that the dowels need to come up into the knob to reinforce the dowel being plumb.  The rotating platform will drag the knobs on the dowels over the bumps, and the friction is going to cause the knobs to slightly lag behind the platform.  The reinforced areas will help keep the drag to a minimum. (See previous blog posts for a photo of the bottom platform with the bumps attached.)

I gave the glue twenty-four hours to dry before dry fitting the platforms together (along with the oatmeal box that is a stand in for the central column) and gave it a test to make sure that everything was lined up.  The knobs on the dowels fit across the bumps and everything stayed in line.  The knobs went up and down as hoped.  I was ecstatic!  I can hardly wait to see what this looks like with the four other animals attached.

This photo is the same from last week.  I did not take another after the test.  The animals have not yet been mounted onto the dowels.

Once again, many thanks to my husband who did the sawing and drilling and helped out with technical advice.  This project is much the better for his input and encouragement.

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