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Tracery Window 5


This design is relatively easy to construct and is based on inscribing 2 circles within a circle. Many of you will recognise the design as the Yin Yang symbol.


Once you have the basic idea of inscribing circles within a circle, variations can be made. The following design was an interesting challenge to draw using pencil and compasses. Plenty of line bisectors used to find centres of circular arcs. It was easier to draw on Cabri, because using the arc tool enabled the arcs to be drawn without reference to any centres. I hope you enjoy experimenting yourself.



Having read an article found on Pinterest, the following windows were constructed more purely, using a pair of compasses. The first shows the centres of the circles used to draw the arcs. The article suggested the angle of the second diameter makes with the original diameter is invtan(tan30/2) but not sure how critical that is. I did attempt to draw the head with the same radius as the wings, but could not do so when adding the embellishments. There is some geometry to be done to explore what is possible. The centre of the wings are found by dividing the radius into 4 equal parts and the centre of the head should lie on the perpendicular bisector of the radius. Exactly where depends on your design.








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