Historic Carousel & Museum, Albany Oregon

Sat, 05 May 2012 23:52:04 +0000

Building during daylight

New Building Design

The new building design was shown in the 5/5/2012 Albany Democrat Herald. The design by Carlson Viet Architects of Salem features a 12 sided carousel pavilion with a linear portion to house the museum, gift shop, carving studio and spaces needed for operation. Wendy Kirbey said the arched windows reflect to arched windows seen downtown and provide ample natural light for the carousel. The windows part way up the roofline add additional light. The brick and stone building seen here on the corner of First and Washington will frame the carousel seen clearly through the windows. The same arched theme carries through the linear portion of the building.

Lioness is painted

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:55:21 +0000

: Peace and friend

Peace the Lioness is done being painted! The next step for Peace is to sit and dry for a good 4-6 months. After the wait, Peace will get taken to a local auto shop and get three layers of automobile clear-coat. Once clear-coated, the only thing left is to put the tiny dove eye in place. One of Peace’s most enduring features is that on the bottom of Peace’s blanket, it says the word “Peace” in 26 different languages, including Braille.

Tuesday is drying

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:48:22 +0000

: Tuesday the cat

Tuesday the Cat is now in the drying stage. Look at all the details! From the stitches on the catnip mouse, to the fur flowing over collar, you can see it all. Those are hand-painted eyes, by the way. We get most of our glass eyes from a local taxidermist, but for those eyes that they don’t have, like dragon’s eyes or giant cat eyes, we end up painting the inside of a glass sphere.

Oregon Art Beat video shoot

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:43:57 +0000

: Oregon Art Beat crew filming a carver.

Oregon Art Beat was at the studio on February 22 filming for a future show. The program is seen on Oregon Public Broadcasting at 8 PM on Thursdays. The date of the show has not yet been set. The OPB website www.opb.org/artsandlife has a wonderful article on their visit, and there was also a good newspaper article on their visit in the Albany Democrat Herald on February 23, 2012. We will be posting some photos of the crew at work.

Electrical fabrication progress

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:16:12 +0000

The motor drive controls are being assembled by the IBEW Training Center in Tangent, Oregon from parts purchased from North Coast Electric in Albany. Glenn Owens of North Coast has worked with Bart Mason to design the controls. The carousel volunteers Bart Mason and Jim Lepin have been working with Dave Baker and Dan Blondell at the center to get the training classes to assemble these electrical panels. The last group of parts will be delivered to the training center in a few days to allow construction of the last panel assembly.

We have also received a 15 hp drive motor donated by Platt Electric and Marathon Motors which will be used to drive the mechanism. Work on fabrication of a suitable motor mount will start as soon as we can assemble the motor drive portion of the mechanism in the temporary space provided for us by Dr. Goby.

A big thanks to all the donated, time, materials, expertise and space that has moved this part of the project forward.

Center Pole setup photos

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:46:51 +0000

A few photos of the setup of the center pole of the carousel are available in the Gallery. We also have some sponsor options listed on the Donations page.