Horses. Take Three.

These horses are nearly finished… finally.

Nearly finished painting the horses

Lights and Encaustics

I've been working on lighting for the carousel. The challenge is the number of lights and the fact that they need to be spinning with the zoetrope (so the power source needs to be isolated). 

Right now I am giving fiber optic lights a try. The pictures below show me modifying a fiber optic strands by dipping them in tinted damar crystals to give them a tungsten quality. 

There are still a lot more strands to go, but the overall effect is on track. 

Progress Reel

Tests in Glass

Cutting glass for the first time

A little scary at the beginning, but the good news it that the process is definitely going to work for what I need. 

Carousel Poles

      Casting the poles for the carousel horses has turned out to be one of the more challenging casts. I've been trying to avoid a two part mold in order to avoid seams, but my one part molds yield pretty inconsistent results. I do have the option of altering the casts after the fact by sanding and adding clay, but kind of time is not in my production schedule. So I was stumped for about a day... but.... tada! I found straws that are perfect for what I need! I ran wooden dowels through the straws and cut them down to size. They will work perfectly and they are pattern is consistent enough that I can actually make the poles spin on the zoetrope. Blessing in disguise.