feature hand-carved animals. That’s an important distinction, says Marlene Morton of the Colorado Carousel Society.
Q: What’s the difference between a hand-carved carousel figure and one that isn’t?
A: The feeling is very different. The reproduction carousel animals are Fiberglas, made in a mold. Their edges are more rounded, because that way they come out of the mold more easily.
Q: And the hand-carved figures?
A: There’s a sharpness to the features of the carved ones that you don’t see in the others. If you tap them, you can tell the difference. The Fiberglas animals sound hollow. The carved wooden animals are much heavier.
Q: How much do they weigh?
A: I’m not sure. Maybe around 250 pounds? It takes both of us — me and my husband (carousel restorer Will Morton) — to lift one.
Q: And the hand-carved figures are not hollow inside. Aren’t they almost assembled like a complicated 3-dimensional jigsaw puzzle?
A: Yes, If you go to the Kit Carson County Carousel Museum, the exhibit has one figure shown as a breakaway. You can see how the pieces fit together in a particular way. The only open space in the body is where the pole goes.
Q: I understand your husband has found things inside carousel animals that he’s restoring.
A: Yes, but there’s not much that can get inside. Mostly, it’s tickets and newspaper bits that got worked into the crevice between the pole and the wood animal.
