Art Car

Rolling Into the Land of Music

In the beginning of August (2023), I started to brainstorm ideas of how Yamaha (my Game Changer) could be represented for my art car. I had many ideas that were good, but the one I chose was better overall. I chose to recreate Yamaha's first Japanese Organ because it was the product that started his career.

How I started the car was a bit of a challenge. I had to measure, trace, and cut out pieces of carboard that would fit my sketch. The larger pieces were easy to put together, but the small pieces such as the side designs or the wave at the bottom of the organ were hard to cut out. 

When I was done with the skeleton of the car, I moved on to the paper mâché. I had at least two round of paper mâché because it would not stick on the car, but I eventually got it to cover the areas. 

The next tedious part of this project was painting. The first few coats of paint were the white paint. It took so long to cover most of the paper mâché, and I couldn't get some of the small nooks and crannies from the mâché. After the white paint, I moved on to the plain coats of brown paint. I used a lot of brown paint because my paint brush kept on peeling off the other coats of paint. Finally, after that struggle I had to start the details. I tried to get a wood grain look with the paint, but I ended up using the wrong shades. However, I'm glad I did that mistake because I like the color of it compared to the reference photo. 

In the middle of the coats of paint that were drying, I started to work on the base and the pedals. I painted the small box I had in the beginning black and figured out a way for the wheels to work. For the wheels system, I used wooden wheels, skewers, and endings of a wood piece to secure the wheels. I also used a drill to make holes in my box so I could fit the skewers that would be used to support my wheels. The pedals were used out of carboard and skewers too. The bottom support for it was made out of popsicle sticks. 

Once the paint was dried and I was done with the base, I needed to think of a way to include a special feature. Mr. Skipper (my Encounters Teacher) gave me the idea in the beginning to add a speaker so it would sound like the organ was playing. I thought and decided to make cut a hole at the bottom below the main part of the organ. I then put the speaker in the hole and tested it out, which was a success. 

Now the last parts of this project were the keyboard (keys) and the small addition I added at the end. I glued two measured carboard parts together and painted them white. Then I glued that on the top then drew on the keys. The last small detail that tied the project together was the mini music book. I research some Japanese Organ pieces that would suit the topic and printed the sheets out. Then I made a small booklet and glued the pages together and put Yamaha's name as the cover.

At the end, this project took a lot of thought, time, and dedication to achieve. However it was enjoyable to create, and I can't wait until next year's project!