Parousel

When I visited Paris in 2006 I went crazy with the camera. I had just completed a large Parisian collage made from my grandmother’s sheet music and I was eager to get more variety in my buildings.

Plus it was beautiful.

I printed out many of the photos, A4 size, and kept them in a book.

Fast forward to 2016, and I’ve taken up this nice carousel habit. Browsing my boxes of raw materials for some more adult content (Little Golden Books are wonderful, but I had maps and diagrams in my sights, and I will get there as well!) I found them.

So here are some of them, Carousel-ed. 14 x 12cm as for all of my current carousels (easy to store, looks great on the shelf, and displayed they look like they go together even if they don’t).

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I learnt a lot from this Carousel.

1. if people will see the frame of the carousel then use the same type of paper for each layer at the minimum
2. tennis elbow and cutting doesn’t go well together
3. photographic paper is robust enough without being backed for a carousel, but if you do back it then see number 2 above… and realise it will make the carousel tighter
4. measuring works but it’s not everything – on this one I made each layer smaller than the last (only the 14x12cm layer was measured), and it worked. If I had my time again I’ve had made the second layer looser, but the front layer works well
5. make sure to pull the tabs really tight if the paper is slippery – this one has gaps between the layers
6. remember the inner layer must be light enough to be seen – some of the beautiful images are obscured at the back because they are too dark – it meant i had to cut back the middle and front layers more than i wanted to, simply to get the light in
7. I added a layer in the middle which was just a paris map (my plan de paris from when i lived in paris in 1989, scanned and played with, and then cutting out parts of the map to make it lace-like)

Thoughts on where I could go next

1. more Paris (this one wouldn’t go together because it was too thick and the central layers were too dark, so I made a new middle layer, and so I have a second Paris one about to complete)
2. Try a carousel with the same image on all 3 layers, maybe zooming in (or out) on each one
3. try a carousel with the same image on every panel (combine this with 2 above and see what happens)
4. try a carousel with a plain background but complex map or diagram cut outs on middle and outside – what about red in the middle, then a map of the heart blood vessels and on the outside a love letter or similar? or a brain one, or muscles? When I eventually get my World Book Encyclopedia back from the attic where they are stored there will be plenty of diagrams to play with.