The Spiral Draw Book

Rating:
Summary: Draw beautiful spirographs
Review: What is a Spirograph?

A Spirograph is a curve formed by rolling a circle inside or outside of another circle. The pen is placed at any point on the rolling circle. If the radius of fixed circle is R, the radius of moving circle is r, and the offset of the pen point in the moving circle is O, then the equation of the resulting curve is defined by:

x = (R+r)*cos(t) - (r+O)*cos(((R+r)/r)*t)
y = (R+r)*sin(t) - (r+O)*sin(((R+r)/r)*t)

For examples of spirographs and how they are affected by R, r, and O check out the website: wordsmith.org/~anu/java/spirograph.html. Using the Java applet at the site, you can vary your spirographs by changing R, r, and O.

"The Spiral Draw Book" is accompanied by a fixed circle template called a 'frame,' and four moving circle templates called 'wheels' that have many offset points (holes within the wheel), so you can draw many different sizes of spirographs. The frame and the wheels are made of sturdy, translucent plastic in shades of blue, green, purple, and yellow. Three stubby gel pens are also included that supposedly change color as you draw.

The book itself is spiral-bound with heavy-duty glossy pages on which the artist is encourage to complete printed drawings with spirographs. For instance, there's a flower pot with stems and leaves that can be finished by drawing spirograph flowers.

Directions for use are clear and well-illustrated. The only tricky part (for me) was applying enough pressure to the frame so that it stayed in one place, but not so much pressure that the wheel stopped moving.

This book also contains intstructions for making stationery, jewelry, bead curtains, and soak art.