Pirouette

Click the palette to select the pen color. Click the gear to draw. Change the ring size and/or gear size to draw different patterns. Click outside the ring to move the gear outside.

Tips

Sample gallery.

A few techniques tend to yield attractive patterns:

• Use a single gear and a single color, placing the pen at consecutive radii along a single diameter.
• Use a single gear and a single color, successively moving the pen one ring inward and one sector (counter)clockwise. For finer control over pen placement, turn off “snap to grid”.
• Use multiple gears whose patterns have the same number of “corners”, e.g., using the ring with $96$ teeth and gears with $28$ or $52$ teeth, or the ring with $105$ teeth and gears with $24$, $36$, $48$, or $54$ teeth. The number of corners drawn by the current ring/gear combination is shown next to the gear size selector.
• Use similar colors to obtain shading- and weaving-type effects. Use contrasting but complementary colors to accent curves of similar shape, or for curves of different but complementary shape.