Carved horse riding toy.

[JK driver]

This isn't really a sign but I used the skills I have aquired over the last 15 years of making signs to make this.
Here are some pictures of a piece I made a while back. It started with the antique riding toy. Well it was missing some pieces, so I was called in. I tried researching the piece but I could not find a thing on it. So I went looking for pictures of carousel horses.
I actually timed this just right as my family and I where taking a trip to western NY. We took a tour of the Tonawanda Carousel museum. It is the only carousel museum that is located in the original carousel production warehouse! And it was well worth the trip!
So back to the project at hand. The metal body of the horse was worked on and repainted. I carved the head and tail out of 18lb Signfoam using the carousel horse pictures as reference. I use Flexicarve chisels for carving HDU. They work great and stay sharp with very little honing. After carving the head and tail I coated them with resin then sanded with 220 grit sand paper. They looked really good just like that, it actually looked like wood.
So on to finishing, I painted and airbrushed using automotive paint for the base and One Shot lettering enamel for the details. Then everything was clearcoated using automotive clear. I applied silver leaf to the bit, assembled the pieces, cut leather straps for the foot pegs and attached them.
The customer was very pleased, this is one of my favorite jobs so far! I have attached two photos a before and after, Enjoy!

 

[grampa dan]

Nice job on the horse!

I would argue that this little piece is a sign - at least in my world of sign making. In our shop we only do dimensional work. We've done rocking horses and all kinds of other pieces... in fact I have an oversize rocking horse in design right now which will act as a display for toys. There is also a cool dinosaur, a zebra, and an elephant to go with it.

I would encourage you to work up a sample of this piece to display in your showroom, plus some other cool stuff. If you want to do more of this type of work you have to show it. Build it and they will come!

-grampa dan

 

[JK driver]

Thank you sir, coming from you that is a big compliment! I am trying to work up some samples for that purpose. Thanks for the e-mail before also, some great words of wisdom in that e-mail.

 

[GAC05]

Nice work all around. The Head and tail look great.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[signmeup]

That's pretty neat. That looks like the same design as those little plastic toys that "walk" down an incline. Does it really "walk"?

 

[JK driver]

Yes it really does walk. The child sits on the back, puts his feet on the pegs. The bottom of the feet are curved from side to side, and front to back. So to walk the child leans back and forth moving the foot on the opposite side he leans, which moves both of the horse legs, and then vice versa.
I thought it would be really cool to make one large enough that an adult could ride! But it would probably be heavy, and pretty much you can only go straight forward and backward.

 

[signmeup]

You would get a lot more responce to this if you posted jpegs of the horse.

 

[JK driver]

Okay, here they are in jpeg format.

 

[SignosaurusRex]

Very Cool! Breathing new life into relics is an art unto itself which I believe is a fine cross-over with the true nature of any artist and craftsman. Nice Work!

 

[OldPaint]

heres one i did a few years ago.............this one the child bounces on it legs move forward, they have wheels under the legs........guy sold it after i repainted it for close to $1000!!!! i took the befor pic so i could recopy the plade saddle blanket..........think i aced that

 

[coyote]

Old Paint-my neighbor had one of those horses when I was a kid-boy that brings back memories.
JK-very nice work. I'm getting inspired to take all that scrap HDU and...

 

[Mal]

These are really neat projects. I've got a spring horse, minus springs and frame, that I've been working on. He was sitting in the trash, waiting for the truck to come and crush him, and I couldn't stand that idea, so I snatched him. Since he's spent his life in unfailing servitude to lord knows how many little rotters, I figured he'd earned retirement, and freedom. So I carved away his bridle and saddle, scrubbed and primed him, and he's currently in the process of gaining a pair of wings. If that ain't freedom, I don't know what is. He'll ultimately get a skin of copper leaf and become part of a really big weathervane.

 

[signmeup]

Here's one I did about 6 years ago. It's new though....not a refurb. It's carved out of pine and birch. It's a pretty poor photo. The wide angle lens has made the front feet look a little large. The mane and tail came from a pony down the street who needed a trim.

 

[Mal]

Now that's a beauty!!! I have a folder on my desktop full of various antique rockinghorse pics, plus a couple of books on the subject. One of these days I'll be brave enough to try making one.
--mal