My PhotoStory was at the Albany Carousel, primarily focusing on the stages of the carving process and how they create the animals that go onto the carousel. This is a long process that can take anywhere from 5 to 12 years to create a single animal. Since the Carousel project started in 2002 but carving started in June of 2003, they have put over 40 animals onto the carousel and it is still not filled up at this point. They have about a dozen carving projects that they are still working on down in the basement and they have two pieces that are finished and are planned to go onto the carousel this year. Each of the pieces have their own story regarding why they are on the carousel because all the pieces are sponsored by people or groups within the community. The out-most row costs $10,000, middle row is $7,500, and the inside row costs $5,000 per piece commissioned.
How they start the process of creating the pieces is that they sit down with the person sponsoring the piece and create a digital reference drawing to get the ideas of what the person wants. They then print the drawings out on large pieces of paper and hang them up on the walls of the carousels basement.
This is the digital drawing of buck that is hung up on the wall. Buck was sponsored by Harry Lagerstedt in honor of his late wife Carol who passed in 2011. Buck is based off a real horse the Carol heard stories about when she was a child from her father. The quilt blanket has patches represent many of Carols passions and interests. All the pieces are hollow and often times contain something of value to the sponsor. This piece contains a book the Harry wrote about his life.
They then move on to finding the right wood pieces and creating block shapes of what they are going to be creating. These pieces will be creating a human that is going to be going onto the carosule at some point in the future.
This photo of Rajah is showing the process somewhere between 20 to 30 percent of the way through the charging process. Rajah is a snow leopard that was commissioned by Brooks and Rita Cavin. The feathers that can be seen in the digital design of Rajah show feathers and those will be carved with the names of the families members.
This is Dexter the Saint Bernard was commissioned by Diana Waston and Amber Blaylock. It is going to be a representation of the families traditions with all the decorations on him representing parts of the families memories and fun activities they did together. Dexter is about 50% of the way done.
This is Friend who is a Chinese Guardian Dog who was commissioned by Tala Marsh. He is to celebrate the sponsors son Zachery. I believe that Friend is 70% to 80% of the way done and is going to be going up to the painting station in the upcoming months.
Sadly they didn’t have any painting projects at the moment so i had to go to the final piece, they have two that are going to be going on the carousel this year but the one that is going on first is.
Grizzly Berry who was by Merle and Carol Ann Berry and their family. It’s another family piece that is meant to represent important pieces of each of the family members lives. I was told that Grizzly would be going on the carosule sometime in May of this year. Each item in the basket holds important\ce to the family. Their names are carved into the fur of the piece.
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