Made by Isis Vandelannote
I’m excited to share the beginnings of my carousel horse. Still a lot of work to do before it is finished. I would like to come as close as possible to those antique wooden carousel horses. They would have had real tails, so if anyone could advice me how to make a “real” horse tail… that would be great.
[Note: Isis wrote a full tutorial that shows us how her carousel horse turned out and how she made it.]
I am so impressed so far! What a fabulous idea! You might also think about doing the tail with paper mache? Carousels ? had wooden tails didn’t they?
I love this project, can’t wait to see your progress!
Thanks 🙂 It depends on how old the carousel is – I learned a lot about carousels for this project. The old ones, those made around the 1900’s often had a real horse tail, but the manes were carved to prevent the ears from breaking. So my preference is a “real” horse tail, but if that doesn’t work out, I’ll have to make one out of paper mache.
my first thought, considering what time of year it is, is buy some halloween wigs!
please explain more about the way you’re building up the body; any wire armature?
I used newspapers to fill out the body. I didn’t use wire in the body, except for the legs. Those needed some extra support. I’ll post an update soon. I’m now working on the head, which is challenging.
Wow, wow, wow! Fabulous start! Would thin jute twine work? It could be stiffened with glue if needed. They also sell fake hair to make dolls with that is not too costly but I don’t know if it would come the length that you need.
Thanks, Eileen. So far, so good. Though the hardest part is yet to come – the head. I like to fake doll hair idea. I just measured it, and it would have to be about 80 cm (about 31.5 inch). I’m sure i’ll find something that will work.
You could try looking somewhere like Sally’s (or ebay) for the long wig / weave hair packs… I’ve used them for other things and you might find some synthetic that’s a texture close enough?? I love this idea – I’m crazy about carousel horses – my grandparents owned one… now I might have to try a similar idea lol. I cant wait to see your progress!
Thanks! I love those old antique carousel horses as well 🙂 You don’t see them that often anymore (or at least, not in Belgium). Yea, I was thinking about wigs too…My first idea was to buy real horse hair extensions…but I don’t think I would have enough to make a ‘full’ tail, and the ‘full’ tails really cost too much. So a wig might work I guess? Thanks for the suggestions! 🙂
ahhh, you’re in Belgium…..you shouldn’t have any trouble at all finding the real thing! perhaps contacting some stables or rings that host dressage or something, where people would be brading the tails…maybe they will have some hair that was cropped?
I have bought a long black wig online (costed me 15 euros, so that’s a good buy) 🙂 It’ll do the job just fine I think.