GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — An icon of the city, the carousel at the Grand Rapids Public Museum is closed for the summer as construction work continues at the museum.
When the lovely, revolving attraction reopens this fall, though, its chariot will have been reupholstered with nearly century-old horse hair and the carousel's animals will be sporting new, colorful coats of paint.
"I find it to be fascinating," Nikki Nass said. "I love to not put things in landfills, to bring back beautiful pieces of furniture that can last another 50 years, another 100 years."
Nass, an upholsterer hired by the museum to replace the chariot's foam padding with its original horse hair, says the fiber — coarse to the touch but plush when used in a cushion — is sustainable and sturdy.
"When you first take it out, it's quite dirty," she said. "But you shake out as much dust as you can, put it in a pillow case, sew it up and put it in a washing machine with baby shampoo."
When the horse hair is cleaned and dried in the sun, it can be reused as if it was new.
"The museum wanted to be able to preserve it in its original state," Nass said about the carousel, which was manufactured by Spillman Engineering in 1928 and sold to the Grand Rapids Public Museum in 1981.
Constructed of wood, the carousel is also one of three produced in its particular style.
"The carousel is actually quite a simple machine, and a lot of people don't realize that," said GRPM Exhibits Manager Stevie Hornyak. "It's a few simple gears that makes this huge thing turn around."
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Hornyak says the carousel's restoration is a work of preservation and education.
The amusement ride's animals — hand-carved horses and other menagerie beasts, including a tiger and a giraffe — are being realistically repainted as to model real-life species.
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"We name the figures as they come alive, when they start getting their faces and start getting the characteristics that make them unique," said painter Lisa Olsen.
Olsen is more than halfway finished with the carousel's animals, and says she spent the most time on a tiger she named 'Sassy,' taking an estimated 600 hours to complete its orange and black stripes.
"He gave me trouble. His name is sassy," Olsen said.
For more information on the Spillman Carousel, click here.
