Cardboard Carousel Horse

A friend asked me if I could come up with a little project for ‘World Funfair Month’ and so I created this carousel horse, or ‘galloper’ made from just one square of cardboard. You could cut out a square (mine was about 12 x 12 cm) or, you could cut a slit down a toilet roll tube and open it out and use that. To make this model you’ll need a pencil, a pair of scissors, some masking tape and a bit of glue. I’ve also used a paper straw for the central pole. If you don’t have one, you could either roll one up yourself (roll some paper around a pencil) or you could replace this with a piece of wooden dowel, a meat skewer, a piece of wire etc. Then you just need some paints to add the colour, including a bit of gold paint or glitter to give it a bit of sparkle.

If it helps, I’ve added a still image here of my initial drawing, and I’ve labelled each part. They don’t have to be perfect, obviously every horse will be different, but as a rough guide, the body fills the bottom quarter of the square, the head and neck fill up to about half way, and then the other elements fit into the top half. The legs can always be drawn thinner if you don’t have as much room. Remember, you can adapt and change things, you don’t have to stick to my plan, this is just to help.

Painting these should be fun, and doesn’t have to be too precise. I used some yellow ochre and gold paint to make the sort of ‘toffee’ colour. I also used red on its own, and mixed it with white to make a vivid pink. You can also see in the photograph here how I’ve used two tricks with my paintbrush to create extra effects. Firstly, I’ve used the wooden end of the brush to ‘scratch back’ into the wet paint to make lines (look at the tail, the neck, and the saddle) and secondly, I’ve dipped the wooden end of the brush into the gold paint and dotted the paint on to make patterns, you can see this most clearly on the legs.

Your ‘galloper’ could be used as part of a bigger sculpture, with different horses. Maybe you could make a whole carousel ride with your family, friends, or classmates.