PHIL'S MINIATURE CAROUSEL

 Hello!  My name is Phil, and I live in the city of Santee, located just outside of San Diego, CA.   I was born and raised here in San Diego and consider myself very fortunate to live in such a beautiful city, for this truly is "America's Finest City"!  

I built a miniature carousel, which is something rarely seen here on the West Coast.  Back on the East coast there are Miniature Carousel organizations, and they often get together for shows and conventions.  I am not aware of any organizations of that nature here on the West coast.  People ask me how I was introduced to the miniature carousel.  It all started when I was looking to buy a small carousel for my niece.  She loves to watch and ride the many carousels located here around town.  I wanted to buy one that looked nice, so I decided to "surf" the net.  While surfing, I came upon the website of Bernice Evarts "Bernie's Carousels".  Bernice is a very talented person who builds and sells miniature carousel kits of all sizes. I contacted her, and after asking her numerous questions, decided to build my own miniature carousel.  She walked me through each step, and was quick to answer any questions I had on building my carousel.  It took about 8 months to build this carousel from start to finish, but believe me, it turned out much more elaborate than any of those "music box" carousels you see in stores.  Some people build, and then sell their carousels.  These carousels are very delicate and can be extremely expensive.  The price of a completed carousel can range anywhere from $7000.00 on up, depending on the size, detail and workmanship. This is my first carousel.  I will be holding on to it for awhile, as it truly is......"My Masterpiece".  

Phil's Carousel

Here's a picture of my carousel.  Actually, the carousel in this picture was blown up so you can see how precise it is to scale.  The actual size of my carousel is 26 inches in diameter and about 18 inches high.  The carousel is made of wood and the pieces are made of resin.  Every piece is hand painted, and I had to paint and put together every part.  Even the horses are hand painted.  I went out and bought the book "Painted Ponies" to get ideas for painting the horses.  There are 20 horses and 2 chariots on my carousel.  The motor and mechanism works just like a real carousel, so my horses go up and down just like a real carousel.  Holes needed to be drilled for the lights.  There are 200 lights, which I had to cut and solder individually, and when it lights up, it truly is a magnificent sight to see.  That's me standing off to the side.

PHOTOS

Here are some "before" and "after" pictures.  You'll see some of my horses unpainted, then painted.  You'll also see what the upper and lower housings looked like before I started working on them.  One picture shows the wiring for the lights, and how it channels through the upper frame.  You'll see how I traced, then cut the rounding board so that it looks a lot cleaner with the shields and jesters on it.  Then you'll see the carousel itself, completed.  I took so many pictures as I worked on this project.  These are the ones I chose for all of you to see.  I hope you like them:

I hope you enjoyed looking at my webpage.  My family and friends are wondering if I'll be building another carousel anytime soon.  I'm not so sure when.  You really need the time and patience to work on a project like this, and right now I've got other things going on in my life.  But I was able to build this one.......and it turned out just beautiful!  But who knows, maybe in the near future..... ; )

Thanks for visiting,
Phil  

A-Parrot-Tefe Rag
Composed and arranged by Stephen Kent Goodman (ASCAP). Copyright 1995 by
Sound Traditions Publishing (ASCAP). Transcribed for midi synthesizer by
George Bogatko.

LINKS

If you enjoyed this webpage and would like to check out some other cool carousel stuff, click here.

If you'd like to visit Bernice Evarts' webpage "Bernie's Carousel's", then click here.

Or, if you have any questions or comments, you can email me at:

pmorara@gmail.com

***Special thanks to Stephen Kent Goodman and George Bogatko for allowing me to use the music on this page.