These ampersand carousels seek to capture the essence of the beautifully handcrafted wooden horses, in the form of spinning type. One of the most beautiful characters in the English language is the ampersand. Typically designers use one of four different styles of ampersands: Calligraphy or italic, traditional, contemporary or casual. Each style can include vast numbers of representations but can be identified by a few specific characteristics. Just like a wooden horse on a carousel, every ampersand is unique.
To start, I took 2 sheets of wood, and glued them together to get a thicker piece. I then cut the wood into 4 squares; one for each ampersand. I printed the letterforms on a large format printer, then used carbon paper to trace them onto the wood. To cut the letterforms, I used a bandsaw, and sanded them down with a belt sander. The smaller areas were sanded by hand. The ampersands were fixed onto a lazy susan mechanism, and I put on a stain to give a nice finish.
