February Kit - Twirly Whirly by Zoë Sanderson

Hello, it is my turn today to share my take on this great kit.  At first this one really had me none plussed so before getting started I really had to think about it.  There are 4 sections to the wheel so what comes in 4s?

The 4 Horsemen? 

The 4 Seasons

The Cardinal points on a Compass

The Suites in a pack of cards.

When the kit arrived the first thing I did was dry assemble it.  There were a couple of reasons for this the main one being to get an understanding of how it will all fit together as there are couple of things you need to be aware of.

There is a base (not in the picture above) that come in 4 parts plus the turntable the large circle above. then there are the compartments and the top divider that helps secure them from above.  With the compartment ends, in each section there is a narrow piece with tabs top and bottom that is the inner end.  the outer end has a tab and a slot the 4 arm piece fits into that slot on the outer but takes a tab on the inner.  When you start gluing them all together it is important that you make sure each section piece has one of each kind of narrow piece attached.

In the picture above you see the top and bottom sections.  The bottom is a solid circle with 3 rings on top this makes space for the long bolt head that everything else fits over.  The top is in 3 pieces each smaller in diameter and with a central hole for the end of the long bolt.  When assembled there is a butterfly screw to hold everything in place on the bolt.

First of all then the 3 main elements were stuck together, ready to be painted.  I did take a photo of this stage but my iPhone camera decided to make it a 1 second movie which will not upload here, sorry.  The stage was with all the compartments completed but before the top arms were added, made it easier to paint.  Anyway when I looked at it like that a fort came to mind and for a while I considered not putting any of the top on.

The fort idea also solved a couple of other issues the paint work became fort walls with plant life at the bottom and the theme became the 4 seasons.   After fiddling around with air dry clay models and things the idea of making a wire tree for each section presented itself.  With that an old compass stamp suggested itself for the very top and the dragon as a weather vane.

Main body painted, a stencil used on the ends with an embossing paste and mica powder.

The compass stamp die cut into 3 sections slightly smaller than the top circles so the larger 2 are attached to the one above and then "their own" part.  This helped blend the top into one piece.   clay dragon hollowed out to sit on top of the bolt.  Butterfly screw not needed in this case.

First tree Spring with Peridot and then I needed to make it stand up.  Air dry clay moulded in a broach mould and while wet the tree pushed into it.  That works so just 2 more moulded pieces needed.  Winter is a bare tree that was attached with heavy body gel medium.

Summer with Amathyst

Autumn 

Winter, Structure paste

North is Winter, East is Spring, South is Summer and West, Autumn.

Although it was January it was a lovely sunny day so the back garden was the perfect spot to take the finished piece pictures.

For me this was a little more challenging than most but that made the final result even more of a pleasure.  

Products used.

Tando Twirly Whirly Art Stand

Tando Set of 4 Background and Flourish Stencils

Media Acrylics

Various Gels and Pastes

 Gem stone chips, copper wire, air dry clay and other elements from my personal stash.

A Magic Roundabout - February Kit by Kim

 Fondly known to the design team as the spinny, roundy-round thing, I present my version of Tando Creative's Twirly Whirly Art Stand ...

Please note the curved round boards and circus top are not included in the kit - they are constructed from off-cuts and spare parts. See 'Bend it like ...' on tomorrow's blog for details of forming the curved surfaces.

Assembly of the greyboard kit is straightforward but note there are two large discs - one has a larger hole than the other - the larger holed one is the bottom, the smaller hole is atop the X section. 

  

Also note the upright end pieces that slot into the large X have their tabs downwards and slot to the top (see picture).

My first job was to base coat the whole thing in white, to make sure the colours are bright and vibrant.

Next I painted a 'leafy glade' scene as a background. I used three greens, first a mid-green dabbed on all 

over but leaving gaps. Next a darker green dabbed on but mainly in the lower half, finally a lighter green, mainly to the upper half. There is no skill needed for this, it is just dabs of colour to give the impression of leaves. I added some brown lines to suggest branches, and brown 'ground' for it to stand on.

Next I worked on the round boards and side panels. I started with a base coat of Primary Yellow, then using a dry brush technique added a boarder of Tangerine, and a slightly narrower boarder of Calico Red. This gave me the basic fairground look I needed.

Using Primary Blue, Festive Green, and Calico Red I added the brush stroke design to the round boards and side panels. I added dotty scrolls in Venetian Gold to complete the design. To make sure the scrolls were all the same I sketched out a suitable size and shape on stiff card, and using a pokey tool pierced the design. I used this as a reversible template to mark the shape in pencil.

Last I added the large white dots - reminiscent of the bright lights found on fairground rides.

To make the circus top I used a cog wheel left over from Tando's Industrial Elements kit and six wooden coffee stirrers. I glued these with all purpose glue as in the picture to make a cone shape. I glued a large washer, also from the Industrial Elements kit, inside the cone for strength. I left this overnight to make sure it was dry.

I measured the height, to get the size for the circle needed for the 'canvas' cover. It just fitted an A3 sheet of paper. I estimated how much of the circle I would need and painted on the red and yellow stripes. I wrapped the paper carefully around the legs of the cone, using PVA to glue it to each one as I went round.

Rather than horses, I thought butterflies would be more magical, so I used a set of Tando Butterfly Minis.

While they were still in their original frame I base coated them in white, and then with Primary Yellow, Calico Red, Primary Blue, and Festive Green I dry brushed random areas over the board, ensuring each butterfly had some of each colour. A little gold edging to finish them before gluing them on poles made with jewellery wire to hang in the carousel.

A Magic Roundabout

I added flags on cocktail sticks, just for fun.

See the carousel in action on my Instagram page

Products:

Tando Creative Twirly Whirly Art Stand Kit

Tando Creative Mixed Media boards (for the round boards, see tomorrow's post)

Tando Minis - Butterflies

DecoArt Americana Colours - White, Primary Blue, Primary Yellow, Calico Red, Festive Green, Burnt Umber, Leaf Green, Foliage Green, Forest Green, Yellow Ochre

Spare parts from Offcuts and Industrial Elements

Coffee stirrers