This carousel horse carving is made of Kendah wood, and was made in Indonesia, imported to Texas a few years ago. He's 7/8th sized, and when I took the job, he had a chunks missing, cracks and other damage. He had been painted with watered-down house latex, and didn't look good.
It took me two days of sanding, carving, filling and gluing to mend his body. I then coated him with several layers of Novacolour's Nacreous white acrylic, which gave him a pearly sheen. My client wanted things of local interest on his saddle and harness, and I painted those next - one side of his saddle has seashells, sand dunes, mermaids and fish, for South Padre Island; the other has local flowers and cacti, the Port Isabel Lighthouse, and Laguna Madre Bay, for Port Isabel, Texas.
His harnessing was a problem, because there was so much of it, and it had flowers carved into parts of his headstall and breastplate. So, using Daniel Smith pearlized paint and Novacolour Hooker's Green Dark, I covered everything but the flowers with fish scales.
The last part was painting his legs, and adding dapples, which I did with my thumb. I let him dry for a day, and then over the next two days put five coats of Envirotex sealer on him.
You can click on either photo to see it bigger and in more detail. And if you are interested in a specility piece please email me.
Paintings of Carousel Horses here.
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