Starting today you can get $20 off your order. Use the coupon code "HomeFun". I know a lot of people are stuck at home due to COVID-19. I'd like to help make that time more enjoyable. I have never run a sale like this before, so it's a big departure for me. And it is just me; Wild Gears is my business that I've build up over the last 6 years. I'm trying to strike a fine balance because I think that Wild Gears could be great for people to have, now more than ever, and I also know that Wild Gears are expensive. I don't want to be tastelessly promoting Wild Gears while everyone is struggling but I do want to do something; this is one way that I can support people. I thought about discounting the Compact Gear Set but decided to use the coupon code so that you have more choice and flexibility in what to get. I don't usually ask for things like this, but if you know of a person, or group that you think might be into Wild Gears could you please let them know about the sale? In case this is the first that you've heard of Wild Gears, let me tell you a bit about it. Wild Gears are a drawing toy and tool for people of all ages. Like other spirograph toys it uses gears, pens, and paper to draw wonderful art. The Gears The Art Examples of the art on Reddit A video of the gears in action If you have questions, concerns, or comments, I want to hear from you. You can comment below or email me directly at [email protected] My current plan is to run this coupon code until at least the end of April but this offer might change before then. Thank-you, Aaron Bleackley
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As part of production Wild Gears are already wiped down with 99% rubbing alcohol. I wear gloves to keep my hands safe from that. I will be simply extending the use of clean gloves to encompass the rest of the handling and packing process.
If you have any questions or concerns, please comment below The Wild Gears Shop now lists prices in CAD (Canadian Dollars) rather than USD (American Dollars). The prices may look higher $99 CAD compared to $80 USD but as of 7PM March 13 2020 (time of writing) $99 CAD is just $71 USD.
My intention is not to lower the prices by much but I also don't want to micromanage them so I took a price conversion that would sit around $76 USD for the past year of currency price fictionalizations. If some price seems wildly incorrect, for an item or for shipping, I'd like to hear about it. These changes have been made quickly and an error may have slipped in. I am making these changes now because of sudden changes made by my web store provider. In the coming month I hope to further improve the Wild Gears Shop to display the prices in your preferred currency. And if I can manage it to generate more precise shipping quotes for each order. New gear sets are finally here! There are a lot of new gear sets to talk about and I'm super excited to share them all with you today. The Spring Collection includes:
Double Dense Gear SetsThere are two large gear sets and one adjunct gear set from this project. They can each be purchased separately but will also be sold as a bundle at a discount Double Dense gears have 4 lines of pen holes instead of two and can make designs with tighter spacing between each element. In the coming weeks I will be taking proper product photos of all these gear sets and making full product pages for them. So for now these are pictures of the prototypes as they come off the laser cutter honeycomb. Link to the shop listing Shapes Hoops Gear SetThis is a large gear set that packs a lot of non-circular gears full of smaller gears. Due to the repetition of many of the gear sizes these cutouts are given non-circular pen holes for an sub-theme and expires different ways to and a non-circular element to the final design. There are repetitions of each shape in this gear set. The frame is divided into three pieces. In the two smaller ones at the top the cutouts are given enough space for the frame to be solid and can be used for making the art, they also contain one example of each of the shapes in the lower portion. The larger lower frame is more fragile and designed to be discarded, or at least is likely to break with much handling and is there for shipping the gear securely. Link to the shop listing Variations on the Enormous Gear SetIn designing early gear sets like the Full Page Gear Set I tried to put as much diversity and variety into it as possible. But this meant that there was just a bit of everything in it so if there is any one element like prime factors or powers of two that you want to dive super deeply into it only has a bit of that for you to focus on. With a bunch of the new more complicated techniques that have arisen for complex design composition, using the Nested Oblong Gear Set or the Stationary center gear technique as two examples, there has been a desire for a more focused set of gears looking at factors of two and three. The Doubling Enormous Gear Set is that exploration. It provides lots of nested gears in cascading powers of two or three. This design is almost finished, I'm just polishing the last of the fine details; like filling in the 45 gears. It will be done in the next days The other new variation on enormous gears is the Modified Enormous Gear Set which starts from 288 and explores similar themes and adds two thicker hoops around the outside To support these themes I've also made an adjunct gear set. Modular Gear Set: Mandala MakerThe idea behind this gear set comes from the desire to make radial positioning of hoops easier. Before the Mandala Maker Gear Set If you wanted to make a big design where your hoops are at different distances and degrees from a center point it was very hard and imprecise. Now there is a gear set for this. You can step a rack gear system around a central gear; controlling degrees of rotation and distance from the center point. This is a modular gear set that makes an oblong frame with an arc segment at each end that can mesh with a 120 or 96 gear. The rest of the gear set are a set of 'cartridge' pieces that are toothed on the top and bottom and have a centered gear cutout. This means that the whole oblong can rotate in steps around the 120 or 96 gear and that each cartridge can move incrementally one tooth at a time. There are approximately 10,000 positions for each of the cartridges. Link to the shop listing Modular Gear Set: Modular OblongsWorking on the Mandala Maker I realized that I could make a much more general purpose modular set that could make an oblong, like in the Nested Oblong Gear Set, of any length that could pinch any hoop. Oblong pieces for any size of hoop! Very exciting, but also very fiddly; the precision required to hold the hoops securely but not too snugly was very tight. This gear set has two main parts. The linear gear pieces, which make up the toothed top and bottom of the oblong, and the spacer pieces as well as the right angle corners which have no teeth. The spacer pieces are 10-15 mm with the 10 and 11 mm ones going up by 0.25 mm increments. The idea is to use the rack pieces to build most of the length of the sides and then fill in the last bit of distance with a few spacer pieces so that the hoop fits perfectly in the oblong that is created. You'll notice that there are some 96/120 pieces that look like the end caps from the mandala maker gear set. These are included so that whatever oblong is created can be stepped around a gear too if desired. I tried for a long time to find a way to bring these two gear sets together into one cohesive piece but I concluded that there is room for them both. The Mandala maker is easier to put together and use and has a lot of options available. The modular oblong gear set is a lot more fiddly to setup. It requires trial and error and takes a few minutes to fit the oblong to the hoop. That being said, it is hugely adjustable and can do far more. Link to the shop listing Can I Order?Wild Gears is still operating. I don't have any employees, its just me, so there is no risk of workplace crowding. I've enhance my handling and safety procedures based on my best understanding of good practices. Postal systems are still delivering so I'll continue to do my job and make art tools and toys for people. If you have any questions at all please comment or email me at [email protected] I know that there has been a lot of new gear sets without a lot of specific words about any of them. Other NewsNew Material
Wild Gears are now made from 100% recycled clear acrylic. My acrylic supplier started carrying it and it works really well so I'm happy to say that Wild Gears is now a greener product. Hurrah! New Discount tier: If you order 6 large gear sets or more you can use the code "BUNDLE25" for 25% off the entire order. Whole Shebang: The one of every gear set bundle has been updated to include all the new spring 2020 collection gear sets. Its price has been increased but only partially. In mid March the price will be re-assessed . Discount For Everyone: Are you buying something? Do you want $20 off? Use the code "HomeFun" at checkout. This blog post has more details. Thank-you for your time and attention. Your interest in Wild Gears means so much to me. Cheers, Aaron |
AuthorAaron Bleackley, designer of Wild Gears Archives
October 2024
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