I’d taken a number of medium-sized Wild Gears patterns, scanned them at high resolution, cleaned them up in Photohsop and shrunk them. Then I arranged them on a page in a triangular shape like a Christmas tree. When I printed it off, I thought, “It’s too fine, too small. Who’s going to want to color that?”

But then I put on my mother’s old reading glasses and started coloring it. I tried my fine-tip felt pens and some gel pens, and decided it was OK after all.

I’m a long way from done, however. It’s kind of like a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. We do one a year, over the Christmas holidays. I may not be doing a jigsaw puzzle this year; I’ll be too busy coloring.

You can too. The page is available to buy as a printable instant download.

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You can buy very nice blank cards and envelopes, pre-cut and folded, and draw designs on them. I found the Strathmore brand in an art supply shop, and I’ve seen them in office supply stores as well, or you can find Strathmore cards and envelopes on Amazon.

There are many different sizes of cards and a variety of paper types to choose from. Some have a textured surface, some are made of recycled fibers, some have “deckled” edges where the fibres hang out as if they were torn, as you can see in the photos. They all work. There are different colours too, from white to black. Some gel pens will mark on black.

I used metallic gel pens for most of these cards. They’re from an inexpensive set of gel pens I got on Amazon, though you could get them anywhere.

I added a matching design on the front and/or back of each envelope as well, making sure to leave room for the address. It was hard to draw over the deckle on the flap of the envelope, although it looks nice.

I’ve been pleased to use my cards for birthdays and thank-you’s, and they would also be suitable for sympathy cards. Even for Christmas, especially using stars. Here is an old video of mine on how to make a 5-pointed star with Spirograph. (That video now has 108,000 views and 525 likes. Wow, just wow.)

Shop Wild Gears at this link.

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Have you seen my Wild Gears page, or any of my Wild Gears videos, or the Wild Gears channel on YouTube?

Then maybe you’re ready for Wild Gears. (Shop Wild Gears at this link.)

Something different

Wild Gears Compact Gear Set

Wild Gears are more expensive than Spirograph because they are not mass produced. They’re designed by Aaron Bleackley who laser cuts them on demand out of acrylic sheets.

Wild Gears give you lots more options. Each gear also has a ring with the same number of teeth. This gives you way more combinations, sizes and versatility.

Laser cutting is very precise, which makes for crisp smoothness to the gear teeth. The holes align precisely with the teeth, and the pieces stay flat – no warping as with the newer Spirograph pieces.

Wheel 35 in ring 48 of wheel 108 inside ring 135, using parallel lines

Wild Gears uniquely allow you to draw patterns with parallel lines. There are unusual shapes and gears with off-center holes that allow crazy wheel-within-a-wheel designs.

Save on bundles

Since 2013, Aaron Bleackley has taken the product through several design cycles and Kickstarter campaigns. There are large sets – the Enormous Gear Set has gears and rings as big as 12 inches – and smaller sets – like the Compact Gear Set (see my Unboxing video) which you can absolutely use with each other.

Aaron will ship Wild Gears just about anywhere.

Shop Wild Gears at this link.

Check out the whole Wild Gears section on this site for lots more videos and images.

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I made a downloadable, high-resolution, printable set of coloring pages, “Wreaths and Stars“ which you can now (July 2024) buy from this site. It comes to you as a high-resolution PDF file with 12 printable coloring pages – one for each of the 12 days of Christmas, if you wish.

Each pattern has space around it so you can cut it out and use on Christmas cards, decorations, gift tags, gift wrap, etc. Try printing on vinyl for window clings. There are lots of different materials available for inkjet and laser printers now. Print each page as many times as you want.

The designs were made in black ink using Wild Gears, scanned at high resolution, cleaned up in Photoshop, arranged on pages and made into PDFs.

We’ve been having a lot of fun coloring up the prototypes. If you like to color, I’m sure you’ll love coloring these SpiroMandala designs.

See all my coloring pages here.

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Star design made with Ring 150/105 and Wheel 63.

I bet this is one of the most popular Spirograph designs. It’s in the instruction book that comes with the new Spirograph Deluxe Design Set as well as the old one.

UPDATE Sept. 2014: I’ve made a video about drawing this design. See below.

Make it in whatever colors you want! Here I’ve used black for the first, middle and last pattern which makes it look like ribbon candy. You also get a nice 5-pointed star outlined in black in the middle, which stands out against the red weave.

You can use these 5-pointed stars to make decorations for Christmas or the Fourth of July. Cut them out, paste them on cardboard, make them into magic wands for the kids.

Instructions:

1. Stick ring 150/105 to your paper using the Spiro-Putty (or pins, if you’re using an old set and haven’t tried Poster Putty yet).
2. Using Wheel #63, line up Hole 1, the hole closest to the teeth, to one of the lines on the ring. Draw the design with your first color (I used black).
3. Line up Hole 3 with the same line on the ring as you used for Hole 1. Use your second color (I used red) to draw the design. Repeat with Holes 5 and 7, being careful to line up the hole with the same mark on the ring. There is a line going from each hole to the edge of the wheel. Be sure to match that line with the line on the ring.
4. Go back to your first color for Hole 9.
5. Draw Holes 11, 13 and 15 with the second color, always lining the hole up with the same line on the ring.
6. Finish by drawing Hole 17 with your first color.

Video

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