Like Mist-O-Matic, this is another painting toy I used to adore called Spiro-Matic!
I will have been around 9 or 10 when I got this for Christmas 1969 or 1970.
Essentially it was a paint spinner. You dribbled liquid paint onto the spinning device and the centripedal force sent it flying across the paper beneath. I recall the paint having an odd but pleasant powdery smell.
The comprehensive leaflet explained everything.
These were typical of the masterpieces possible!
Unsurprisingly such a simple idea has never gone away and you can still get spiral art sets now. Some are simple and inexpensive and some much dearer. The one above is Swirl N Spin and costs around £25. I prefer the Denys Fisher version from 1969!
Did you have one of these toys readers?
[pics: do you remember forum; steve snyder; amazon]
Never owned one but I remember the adverts.
ReplyDeleteI do pottery as an evening class.
Last night we were decorating tiles and I decided that putting a tile on a potters wheel, adding circles of colour and then put the potters wheel at full speed.
It worked pretty well and we got some good effects.
I might need to buy the toy now!
great stuff Gef, glad you liked using it. I bet they are for sale on Amazon as a new toy. Good luck with the class. If you ever want to send in piccies to share here of your Spiro matic efforts then my email is at the base of the page. Cheers, Woodsy
DeleteI had one of these as a 9 year old for Christmas. i played with it until the paint ran out, & Mum got me replacement paints, & my little granddaughter has had a similar one for Easter, Paw Patrol spin & create art station
DeleteWorks in the same way, can't wait to try it with her.
Hope your granddaughter enjoys her Spiro-matic as much as we did as kids!
DeleteI absolutely loved this painting toy. The Spiro-matic is in my top 10 gifts when I was 'younger!' I was about 8 or 9 when I had it as a Christmas present. I can't tell you how much I loved it and remember it with so much fondness. I used it straight away and many times afterwards. I searched high and low for 1 when my daughter was younger. I just LOVED the SPIRO-matic - thanks for posting this.
ReplyDeleteSorry - I'm Jacky who published the above comment.
ReplyDeleteIt was a wonderful thing Jacky I agree and I adored it as a kid in the mid-Sixties. I;m glad it brought back memories of happy times. We certainly need them now!
DeleteI had one of those for my Christmas 1969 and at the time we had no record player so later in 1970 I made a very crude brown cardboard tone arm with a sewing needle pushed through the front end of the cardboard and I finally got it to play some old records
ReplyDeleteHi Anon. Thats a great memory. Did your needle really play records? Thats incredible!
DeleteI had a SPIRO-matic for Christmas, I'm now hoping to get my Granddaughter one for Christmas too
ReplyDeleteI remember having one
ReplyDelete