Pin art, also known as a pinscreen, is an executive toy. It consists of a boxed surface made of a crowded array of pins that are free to slide in and out independently in a screen to create a three-dimensional relief. Other similar product names are "PinPressions" and "Pinhead". The original Pinscreen toys were made of metal pins, which were heavier and tended to bend easily; newer Pinscreen toys are generally made of plastic pins. Pinscreens have also been used for animation production; a larger device working on a similar principle was invented by Claire Parker in 1935.[1]

The impression of a person's nose and mouth on a pinscreen
A large pinscreen at the Parque Explora in Colombia

A 4-by-8-foot (1.2 m × 2.4 m) pinscreen is at the Swiss Science Center Technorama in Winterthur, Switzerland. This screen is like a large 3D drawing pad that can work with different sizes of paintbrushes for calligraphy.

In popular culture edit

References edit

  1. ^ Neupert, Richard (2011-03-08). French Animation History. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4443-9257-9.