And hello to you! Happy Monday and welcome back to Make It Monday!
If you read my blog post last week (if not, you can read it here) you'll know I was inspired to create a thaumatrope having been given a wooden one by my grandmother when I was little. I would spend ages spinning the disk on it's string, enchanted by the separate images becoming one as they danced between my fingers.
Thaumatropes were created during the Victorian period and the name translates as 'Wonder Turner' (source: Wikipedia). Isn't that meaning wonderful? A 'wonder turner'. Certainly, seeing two separate images blur into one motion is definitely wonderful and one of the many reasons I was keen to include one in our Spring-themed craft box.
Our butterfly thaumatrope is printed on recyclable card and comes with cotton ties. Continue reading for instructions as to how to put it together.
These are the pieces of your thaumatrope. You can see one side has the butterfly wings, while the other has the body. Remove the string.
Colour in the butterfly wings and if you would like, the area around the wings. You can choose any colours you'd like. We've been watching a lot of 'Encanto' recently so I coloured the area around the wings blue, like Mirabel's skirt, then the butterfly wings were coloured yellow. I used a gold pen to try to draw some of the details from the Madrigal candle as well, but this is totally optional. You can make your butterfly as detailed as you would like.
Now it's time to put it together. You need to make sure when you stick them together that the butterfly's body is in the opposite direction to the wings (see picture above). Put a dot of glue on the back and stick the two disks together, lining up the holes. Thread one piece of string through each of the holes and tie the ends. Holding the string between your thumb and forefinger, gently spin the string up and down which should cause the thaumatrope to spin. Watch as the butterfly gets its wings!
Check out the video below to see the thaumatrope in action.
Our butterfly thaumatropes form part of the Spring-themed craft box and the mini spring craft box. Make sure you share your makes with me over on Instagram, tagging @g.clark_hellery.