My favorite thing about this book is how it teaches you some basic principles about making Spirograph designs, then encourages you to improvise. Maybe, as it says, you can create a design that no one else has ever seen.

The writing style is relatively literary, compared to the minimalist writing found today. The booklet walks you through the different things you can do with one ring and one wheel, and takes you to the most difficult designs using two racks.

The older sets had one particular property that got lost sometime in sets made in the 1980s and later. The alignment mark was halfway up one side of the tooth. If you turned a wheel over and drew the same pattern again, it wouldn’t line up exactly. But this could be used to make a denser pattern. This feature is described in the booklet, and some designs are shown that use this technique.

This set also came with some sheets of paper that were divided in squares for drawing your nicest designs. The rings had lines that aligned with the squares, as you can see in the diagrams in the booklet. You could easily use them to make patterns with both rings, aligning them carefully with the squared paper.

Denys Fisher, by the way, was the inventor of Spirograph, and vintage UK sets carried his name. Sets made in the US and Canada did not, nor do the modern sets made by Kahootz Toys.

Thanks Ron, from all of us, for sending these photos and your observations!

Click on an image to see the slideshow of all the pages in the booklet.

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Two rack setup with pins

Ready for a Spirograph challenge?

I didn’t get into the two-rack designs as a kid. Maybe I tried it once and found it too difficult; I don’t remember. But a request for some videos about them prompted me to sit down and give it a try.

The result is four videos (below), each one dealing with a different design.

Page 7 of the old Kenner Super Spirograph manual

I followed the instructions in my old Super Spirograph manual (image right). I have prepared PDFs of this page that you can download and print. Choose 8.5 x 11 (North America) or A4 (elsewhere).

The first video shows me first attaching the racks with “Spiro putty” (poster putty). Normally I prefer the putty, but I decided to use pins in this case as they make it easier to position the racks correctly. Note that I’m using a corkboard with the pins.

Not all the new sets (by Kahootz Toys) come with two racks. The Deluxe set has only one; the Tin set has one; the Die-cast set has none. However, the new Super Spirograph has two racks, as do the old Kenner Spirograph and Super Spirograph. See a detailed chart of what’s included in some of the sets here.

These designs are more complex and require a lot of concentration. However, I am now quite curious about experimenting with this method and creating some new designs!

If you try this technique yourself, feel free to share your experience in the comments below.

I’ve put my four videos in a playlist so you can watch them all together.

The post Designs with Two Racks: Instructions & Videos appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

This was a question from Michaela Fredrich in Germany. I answered that I didn’t know an easy way to do it, but wondered about using erasable pencil guidelines. Here is what she came up with.

Measure the outer diameters of the rings and divide by half. Use a compass to draw a circle for each, with the center point on a vertical pencil line. Be sure to mark the paper lightly with pencil so you can erase the lines later.

Measure and mark

Draw a horizontal line through the center point at a 90 degree angle to the vertical line, using a protractor.

The 144/96 wheel with lines marked in red at 3, 6, 9 and 12 o’clock. This is an old Denys Fisher set, with pinholes spaced 90 degrees apart. They could also provide an indicator for alignment. Or you could use the ring’s positioning lines, as there are 12 of them on this ring.

Draw the pattern with the first ring.

The 150/105 ring is harder to position over the pencil lines, as the number of positioning lines (15) cannot be divided by 4. Michaela has drawn red lines on the 150/105 ring at 90 degree intervals. Alternatively, if your set has pinholes, you can line them up with the intersecting guidelines.

Draw a pattern with the second ring. Now you’ll see how well you have done. This looks pretty good.

When you’re finished, erase the pencil lines.

There isn’t a really easy way to draw a design using both rings, but this technique should help you get better results. Your success will depend on how carefully and precisely you work.

Before the days of computer aided design (CAD) and drawing programs, accurate technical drawing was a very important skill to have. This challenge presents an opportunity to develop analog drawing skills.

If you have any refinements to suggest, please add them in the comments below.

Thanks to Michaela for the effort she made into developing the idea and taking photos!

The post Aligning Both Spirograph Rings on the Same Pattern appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

How many points will you get? It depends on the same mathematical formula that determines the number of points of a hypotrochoid. You don’t have to do the math, though. Just use this Table of Spirograph Points in the reference section of this website.

Once you’ve drawn your epitrochoid, try drawing a design inside the ring to match it before you take the ring off the paper, as I did in the video.

Here’s another idea: use it as a picture frame or greeting card with a photo or message on the inside!

You can also draw an epitrochoid around another wheel, rather than a ring. Try it.

Drawing around a Spirograph rack, or around open shapes made with Super Spirograph parts, also creates epitrochoids, but that’s a subject for another video.

The post Video: Drawing on the outside of the ring appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

I’ve kept the footage in normal time, not speeding it up, so you can hear me talk and see exactly what I’m doing. I’ve been spirographing for so long that it’s hard to put myself in the shoes of someone new to Spirograph, so perhaps a video is worth 1000 words – or 1000 subscribers, the number my YouTube channel reached on the day I posted the video.

Then I made three designs. The first two patterns are similar to ones in the instruction booklet, but with different colors.  The third design is one I made up on the spot. The video shows my thinking process in choosing what to do next – and when to stop.

This video is especially for people who are new to Spirograph. If you find it helpful or have questions, I’d appreciate hearing about it in the comments here or on the YouTube page.

Buy the Spirograph Deluxe Design Set here  (affiliate link to Amazon)

The post New Basic How-To Spirograph Video! appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

Or use it online:

Another source, in case the one below disappears, from Flickr user mudyfoot:

It was posted to Scribd by user “shootme2001”. Whoever you are, thank you!

The post Original Spirograph Manual appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

There are 4 wheels that give you a 7-pointed design when used with ring 150/105, as I discussed in a previous post.

If you’re new to Spirograph, you may find it helpful to watch someone else draw with it in real time. There’s nothing speeded up in this video. I talk about pens and putty and playing with color as I go. Hope you like it.

The post Video on Drawing 7-Pointed Spirograph Designs appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

You can use this technique with other wheel and ring combinations. It works best with patterns of 8 points or less. Try these variations:

• Instead of holes 1-2-3-4-5-6 etc., try 1-3-5-7-9-11 etc.
• Instead of moving the wheel right 2 teeth, move it over just 1 tooth. Or move it to the left instead of to the right.
• Play with different color combinations. Try a gradient effect if you have pens in different greens and blues. Or use the colors of the rainbow. Or your favorite colors in some other combination.

Add your ideas in the comments below.

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