Wednesday 13 June 2012

 Harmonograph

I had been dreaming for years about making my own Harmonograph - slowly building up the components and design ideas. Then I said 'Sod it - life's too short'

It is probably one of the very best things I have ever done. I set it up once in front of a class once and they spontaneously burst into applause as they watched it produce the most amazing drawings. What a strange reaction. I set it up in my dining room and sat my 3 year old son in front of it - he was spell bound!




Someone saw the drawings once, an Art teacher, and said 'wheres the skill in that?'

Go and build one now, even a little one - mind blowing!


You can change the size of weight, position of weight and which combination of pendulums are swinging and in one types of swing and combinations of swing (clockwise verses counter - clockwise for example) I have made hundreds and hundreds of drawings.


For the first 30 days I used to sign each one and write 'Harmonograph Day 1/2/3 etc' Day 1's are a rare breed, but there are a few out there!





Check out some of the examples below:









2 comments:

  1. You've just made my list of things to build longer, Thank you.

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  2. Hi David, It was on my list for years, took longer than I thought to collect all the materials, but it just takes your breath away when you watch your creation make its first drawings! - You can make a smaller version but this one does A3 drawings which is nice - but it takes up lots of room! All the best, Berin.

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