Berkshire Carousel again

It is amazing how the project of the Berkshire Carousel just sucks you in. In the few days that I have been involved over the past two weeks, I have gone from watching and listening on my first hour there, then to sawing, gluing and clamping; soon I was carving with a mallet and chisel on the body of a horse I had never met. Today, it was the body of the donkey named Missy who got my attention for the first part of the day, and then the head of Melinda.

First, about Missy the donkey. A Pittsfield man named Kevin O'Hara wrote a memoir "Last of the Donkey Pilgrims" about his pilgrimage around the coast of Ireland with his donkey named Missy. An introduction to this can be found on Kevin's Blog    http://bloggingfromthebog.wordpress.com/tag/kevin-ohara/logging   Blogging from the Bog. It is a great story about friendship between a man and his donkey. It tells of a deepening respect that was mutually beneficial as Kevin grew to appreciate his companion over the weeks and months of travel. I find it fascinating that this particular donkey will have a place on the carousel. It is not just a cute name, but there is a history behind this one. Having had an opportunity to work on this donkey has carved an image and a story deeply into my personal memory bank. I am going to get back to the blog soon, and also get the book, and maybe Missy's hoof print on it from the carousel.

And now, about Melinda. I do not yet know the story behind Melinda. I am sure that will come out.  Meanwhile, I write my own story of Melinda. The day I signed on as a volunteer, Phil, a man who knows his woodworking and carving introduced me to Melinda. It was a drawing on maybe 6 feet by 4 feet paper. We taped it to a viewing board in the shop, and Phil showed me some of the lines on the drawing and what they meant. There were red lines that denoted the sections of the horse that had to be made separately and then carved and put together before the artists go to work at the painting.

Honestly, although I was fascinated by the drawing, I had trouble understanding how the concept became a reality.

My first full day on the job, as I said in a previous blog, involved body work on Melinda. This was cutting boards, gluing them together to make the various parts of the horse- body, head, neck, tail, legs. I took a vacation from Melinda to work on Thunderbolt (still on the carving table). Pieces of Melinda appeared soon in the carving area. I was surprised at the size of her, although I knew she was going to occupy the outside ring of the carousel.

Suddenly, today, I got the call. Melinda needed me again. Because I was so skilled at drilling a straight hole, and thoroughly acquainted with dowel points, I was chosen to drill the holes and match the head to the neck with dowels  Now this requires way more expertise than I thought I had. I saw it done last week, once. And today, I did it pretty much on my own.

That wasn't all. I was then told to get some tracing paper and a pencil and trace Melinda's head, with eyes, teeth and harness adornments, from the large drawing of the complete Melinda. This traced image I then retraced onto the wooden block, labelled Melinda's head. I guess the stunning part of it was that the supervisors tipped in with suggestions, a small amount of instruction, and for the most part let me be. I was so involved that I had to complete that whole operation before I left. I really felt responsible to prepare Melinda's head for the carvers.

Like I said, the Berkshire Carousel sucks you in. The floor managers know their stuff (it is more than woodworking and carving), pass it on and the project becomes your own. I can hardly wait for the day when I take my grandson there for a ride on the great animals that are becoming part of me, and I hope to be able to tell him the story of the Berkshire Carousel.