Village Carousel Project: 2024
Major
Focus: Support, Encourage and Instigate Village Carousels
April 17, 2024, Santa Barbara, CA. More poco a poco
progress has happened since my last winter visit to San Juan Cosalá.
I just returned from there three days ago in my trusty 2004 Toyota
Sienna. Completed the round trip drive begun earlier this recent
February. Delivered some mechanism parts and also some project design
and display materials. Seems the organization part of the project, in
many ways the big step we need to take right now, is underway. There
are now about seven of us. Of course everyone is busy but they like the
many interesting aspects of this project; educational, recreational,
community, small business development and folkart. I have lots of
photos but not posting anything here until we are at or past camp one.
We've left basecamp, and that is wonderful. At camp one we will really
know what we have and how to best move forward up this trail to the
carousel and pavilion (with nearby benches) in a park. At that time I
will share photos. I do not do Facebook but I heard there is a Facebook
for the carousel project. I will post here as news update when I get a
name or link to it.March 14, 2024 Port Townsend, WA. Some progress and possibilities have arrived since last April. A trip to Lake Chapala November 2023 brought me into contact with an amazing local community organizer, restaurant owner, contractor and food bank operator in San Juan Cosalá, Jalisco, Mexico. We had a meeting of the minds on a possible locally-built-carousel-in-community-park project. Augustín had the great sense to suggest the placement of a 6" diameter steel pole at the center of the carousel rather than just making it solely a rebar Eiffel Tower structure. With that design we can make the Eiffel tower aspect out of local bamboo as an exterior covering rather than a structural support. The "look" will be great. At the moment the project is a hopeful desire which needs the support and organization of a local group to oversee the implementation and financial aspects of this this park and community educational and improvement project. With a solid group a bank account can be opened and an internet site can be established. With these in place we can raise funds worldwide from anyone interested in supporting this effort. With the appropriate funding a beautiful local carousel and pavilion can be built. Park landscaping can be developed. Vocational educational programs can be established and very possibly more similar projects for other villages can be organized. This next 6 months will be crucial to see whether the community organizing energy is able to coalesce. If so, I will be there at regular intervals to design, teach, assist and oversee the project.
April 7, 2023 Port Townsend, WA. My last complete carousel was sold about a year and a half ago. This was a relief but also created an empty feeling. Now It's time to do something completely new and apropos to the times, from scratch. Look at the "News" pull down menu to see a photo and a sketch of the idea I am working on. It's a typical 20' diameter 15 rider hand crank carousel like most of those I have built. The center pole is the first big change. Gustave Eiffel designed a very tall and strong tower in 1887. I am attempting to build a 1/80th scale steel Eiffel Tower center pole using a standard hand crank operation. It will have some traditional wooden carved menagerie animals, several swing seats and one or more special new style animals which I have in the design stage now. Hint, natural wood-like materal never before used for a crousel figure. More on this later. (hint: think succulant bones)
December 21, 2021, Winter Solstice, a very short day book-ended with two vey long nights and an uusually large bright moon. All quiet in Port Townsend as we continue along these unusual 202X years. Nevertheless things do happen. The Tower of Giraffes Balançoire is now happily stationed upstairst in the beautiful gathering room of Aldrich's in Uptown Port Townsend. MGR#8 has a new owner and home! An amazing young man by the name of Matthew Wooldridge of Castle Rock, Washington has taken possession of the last Dentzel carousel to leave the shop, MGR#8. A wonderful new home and family (some of them very adorable French Bulldogs) has been found for this hand-crank/electric powered, 15 rider, music, lights, ring tossing game, complete "flying horses" carousel. Matthew will gradually be setting up his carousel at regionak events in south central Washington State. Watch this carousel at work on Youtube video of MGR#8.
August 2019 in Port Townsend WA a wonderful new music festival called The Thing took place at Fort Worden State Park, unexpectedly the last remaining "flying horses" Dentzel carousel, MGR #8, was setup and operating. Hundreds of children and adults flew around while grabbing rings Saturday and Sunday. (See "News"). This carousel was packed away in a "mothballed" condition until a home was found for it.
2017 offered a long overdue Chiapas visit and a tremendous attraction to do a carousel project far to the south, specifically Mexico, that can very well still happen. Then unexpectedly, a message arrived, a project ranging 3000 miles to the east, Croton-on-Hudson NY, showed up as the opener for the carousel triptych and MGR #10 is now installed at Van Cortland Manor. With the passing of my mother, Marion W. Dentzel late December 2017, we lost one of the great American carousel revivalists. 2018 began with a lot of family carousel archive work and museum distribution (see Albany Historic Carousel and Museum). The William H. Dentzel 2 and Marion Dentzel legacy shall keep moving into the wider world.
The William H. Dentzel 3 long term goal is to set up a workshop to facilitate full community member participation through skill training in the production of local carousels. City parks, schools, community centers and specialty restaurants are the venues best suited to these human powered carousels. Skill training with local materials and participation are rewarding aspects of taking ownership of a carousel. When it comes time to explore southward, workshop facilities will be sought out. The materials cost of a complete hand-crank carousel and pavilion made in many places in Latin America would be US$5,000 more or less, this depends on in-kind community participation. This low price would make it possible for a small community to create a fund raising project and establish a small durable carousel which would serve a large young local population for decades.
William Dentzel 3, fifth generation Carouselmaker, learned the craft of carouselmaking from his father and decades of antique restoration and new carousel building. Sharing this craft, especially with the children and families of underserved communities, has been his life work (aside from wooden boat and house carpentry). This latest phase of carousel creation is an amalgam of Internet connectivity for funding and awarness with local vocational training, workshop colaboration, community elder planning, international relations and family wellbeing. The Dentzel Carousel Company has been headquartered in Port Townsend, Washington, USA since 1983 and soon hopes to have a local project under way in Latin America.
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