Diane Schneck
Kissimee, FL

The Circus is Coming

The initial anxiety of receiving a camel, a pair of wings and an orange/red jewel prompted me to phone everyone I know to say 'What was I thinking? I can never do anything with this!' My very next thought was to just make a flying camel but what to do with the jewel! Since the logical computer programmer side of my brain is in a constant battle with the creative side I came up with five potential projects, sketched them out, created a power point presentation and made all those that I phoned earlier view it.

The final project turned out to be a fully functional Jack in the Box, complete with a 'Pop Goes the Weasel' music box, using four antique circus wagons as the theme. I did a bit of research about historical wagons and used actual wagons for inspiration. With ornate wood carvings and no two wagons alike, they are classic examples of American folk art. The orange/red jewel was placed in the top middle of the Calliope Wagon; this is of course the music box for the carousel. The camel was painted gold and attached to the door of the Ticket Booth Wagon. Wings were added to the violin on the Band Wagon, appropriately named because the Band rode on the top front of this wagon in the circus parade. The fourth circus wagon was the Animal Wagon where the lions and tigers and bears (oh my) were showcased in the parades. Since there is a limit of three pictures, one photo chosen to display this project included a mirrored background image of the Animal Wagon.

Completing this project was tremendously fun, interesting and motivating.