A Visit to the Carousel Horse carving workshop

I’ve always loved carousel horses, and have made tapestries of them, but have never been inspired to carve one.

I much prefer to carve small dolls 🙂

A couple of weeks ago, my family and I went to Fort Edmonton Park in Edmonton Alberta.

We made a beeline to the Carousel, which has been gloriously restored by volunteer carvers.

I took Hitty Tennie and tiny Bessie Gnome with me.

It was quite a challenge to take the photo one handed, as we really clipped around, and the up and down motion was ~really~ up and down!

As soon as we got off, I pleaded with my family to have another ride, but they were interested in checking out other things. Sigh.  (It really was wonderful!)

We went over to the wood carving shop where the volunteer carvers create the spectacular beauties for the large carousel (that we rode on), as well as the smaller carousels:

Signs told humans that they were not allowed to climb onto these particular horses, but I figured that small wooden dolls wouldn’t cause too much havoc.

The Hypocamp  was exquisite, and the woman who was in charge of the wood carving shop asked if the girls would like to sit on it.

Oooh, yes, please!

Tennie and Bessie enjoyed looking at all the woodworking tools and templates.

Afterwards, two sweet volunteers who were dressed in 1920’s clothing,  held them for a photo op at one of the small carousels:

 

Sweet summer memories!