Comments (5)

By Mom Unplugged, February 28, 2010 9:40 pm

I promised another Spiral Unplugged Project post and I am finally here with it - at the eleventh hour (a new Monthly Unplugged Project theme begins tomorrow)!

All day yesterday I was looking after four girls in addition to my own two girls (my son was very happy to escape this overdose of estrogen by fleeing to a friend’s house).

The age of the girls ranged from 4 to 11 and after boredom appeared to be setting in, I tried this totally retro idea out on them: Spirograph Shrinky Dinks. Just 3 words: THEY-LOVED-IT.

I had bought some shrink plastic at a Michael’s craft store on my last trip to the big city. We pinned the Spirograph rings on to the plastic sheets with no problems. NOTE: The frosted type of paper worked out best with markers, the shiny white tended to smear.

Since my original Spirograph ball point pens were long dead after 30+ years, I had also bought some fine point Sharpies in many different colors and they worked great! The tip was small and long enough to fit through the holes in the Spirograph disks and produce beautiful results.

Before they went in the oven, we punched holes in some of the finished Shrinky Dinks. A regular one-hole paper punch works fine and, once shrunk, produces a hole large enough for a thread or fine wire. If you need to thread on something larger than that, then punch several times to make a bigger hole.

The girls strung them on thread to make necklaces. I actually have an even fancier idea in mind, so check back!

If you like this, then be sure to read my original Spirograph post. To find out how to make your own Shrinky Dink plastic from home trash, don’t miss my Homemade Shrinky Dinks post!

Comments (9)

By Mom Unplugged, February 14, 2010 6:54 pm

The theme for this month’s Unplugged Project is spiral. All along I had been thinking Spirograph and dug out my old Spirograph sets (yes, I am a packrat!), but we haven’t had a chance to play with those yet.

Coincidentally, my husband gave each of the kids a gift bag full of Valentine’s Day goodies, including a very cute, small, heart-shaped Spirograph-type toy! They pulled those out this afternoon and had a blast with them. It was their first time playing with such a thing (although the results reminded the kids of our very fun string art project).

It is still a bit hard for my 4 year-old to manage on her own (holding frame still and keeping the gear tracking along the teeth), but she loved it and it seems like a great exercise in fine motor skills.

When I was a child, the classic Kenner Spirograph was as ubiquitous as Crayola Crayons or Play-Doh. Everyone had one! But nowadays, as far as I can tell, this is considered a “vintage toy” that can only be found at places like Ebay. Am I vintage too?? Feeling a little old here…

Anyhow, I have lots of not-so-vintage ideas of things to do with our Spirograph creations. Hopefully we’ll get to try them and post about it before the end of the month.

LINKS:

• There are still Spirograph-like sets out there.

• Here’s a simple one that looks pretty good to me: Hypotrochoid Art Set.

• The mathematics and history of Spirograph.

• Find a real Spirograph set on Ebay!

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