Video: How To Make Crop Circles


Spring has sprung, crops are growing, and it’s time once again for everyone’s favorite landscape art – crop circles!

The year is already starting off well with some lovely examples in England, Italy and other countries. Numbers will increase in the summer as crops grow and provide a better palette. Crop Circle Connector keeps a running tally so you can see what’s up in the world of cereology, the study of, well, you know.

Now before anyone starts filling the comments section with wild-eyed tales of UFOs and Earth energies, let me rain on your parade by saying that crop circles were debunked a long time ago. The Circlemakers group has taken credit for many of them and they have even posted a beginner’s guide to making crop circles. There are also plenty of how-to videos, like this one commissioned by a British tabloid. It will show you, step-by-step, how to annoy farmers and entrance crystal-clutching New Agers.

This video was made way back in 2001, yet still there are superstitious dupes paranormal investigators who insist that while many are faked, some crop circles “cannot be explained.” As I noted in an earlier post, that’s like saying that while we have documentation for the construction of most medieval cathedrals, there are no blueprints or payrolls for other cathedrals and therefore they must have been made by aliens.

But who cares? Crop circles are beautiful and fun. It raises awareness of the natural landscape. Even better, the crops can still be harvested. No wheat was harmed in the making of this video. Now get out there and start circling!

Indonesian crop circles blamed on UFO’s – we still have more faith in hoaxers

The UFO enthusiast world is abuzz after a large crop circle appeared in a field in Sleman, Indonesia. According to several local residents, a tornado passed through the village, and by morning, the crop circle had appeared.

Even though these circles have been debunked as being a hoax, UFO spotters are convinced that they were created by extraterrestrials.

Thankfully, sane people at the Indonesian Space Agency refused to send a team to investigate, saying:

“We will not send investigators to the scene because we suspect the crop circle involves human intervention, not natural phenomena, nor scientific phenomena associated with outer space creatures commonly referred to as aliens”

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Crop circles are back!

Remember crop circles, those strange shapes that started appearing in the Nineties in fields all across England? We haven’t heard much about them lately, but according to an article in the Guardian’s G2 magazine, this year hikers in England’s beautiful countryside should see a bumper crop. May was a banner month, and new circles are already showing up in June. The article has an interesting gallery of some of this year’s best and gives a step-by-step guide to making your own, although there are more detailed instructions at How Stuff Works.

Nobody is sure when the crop circle phenomenon actually began, but simple designs caught the attention of UFO researchers in the Seventies. Soon simple circles weren’t enough and designs became more and more elaborate. Paranormal investigators argued whether they were made by aliens, earth spirits, or dozens of other possible sources. They tried to ignore the TV interviews with artists who showed how you could flatten wheat into designs with simple tools such as a board and rope. The craze eventually spread to mainland Europe, Japan, and North America.

Some artists have even created an organization called Circlemakers and boast of their work on their website. Not only have these guys done the typical circles and designs, they’ve also done ads for Shredded Wheat, Nike, and Hello Kitty.

This hasn’t stopped organizations such as the Wiltshire Crop Circle Study Group from studying what they say is an unexplained phenomenon. They claim that while evidence such as post holes or confessions by artists prove most crop circles are man made, a minority of circles defy explanation, an argument that is tantamount to saying that while we have documentation for the construction of most medieval cathedrals, there are no blueprints or payrolls for other cathedrals and therefore they must have been made by aliens.

But that is neither here nor there. The truth is not as mundane as the skeptics insist or the believers fear–in fact the truth is even more amazing than UFOs or Earth Powers or whatever. Dedicated groups of artists have, usually for no fame or money, imprinted complex works of art onto the landscape under the cover of night. England has always been a culture deeply tied to its landscape and hiking is one of the most popular activities here. Most of its ancient monuments such as Stonehenge or Silbury Hill are in fact modifications of their natural surroundings. As England becomes more urban, the English are losing touch with the landscape. The artists who make crop circles are bringing their country back to its roots. It’s an amazing cultural movement that is giving the country beautiful works of art rooted in tradition yet with a futuristic twist. They should be applauded.

I once got to examine a crop circle near West Kennet Long Barrow. Circle makers like to make their designs near ancient sites, which is pretty easy considering the countryside is full of them. This circle was a simple pattern, a big circle with some radial designs. Being on the hill leading up to one of England’s most impressive megalithic ruins added to the atmosphere and made the visit more memorable. As the hiking season gets going, I’m starting a new series called English Country Walks. If I come across more crop circles, I’ll be sure to take photos and share them here!

Crop circles are over. Enter crop triangles!

It started in the English countryside, we think. Now they’ve been spotted everywhere from Iowa to the open fields of Mexico: Crop Polygons.

Crop circles have been appearing all over the world for years, with debates going back and forth over whether they’re alien, man-made, or some crazy weather phenomenon. Now, as if mother nature is slapping us in the face and laughing, we are suddenly being presented with crop triangles, rectangles, and there are even rumors of a hexagon near Dyersville, Iowa.

“We’re just glad there are no pentagons or stars,” says a local farmer. “That would be scary.”

“Look what those bastard aliens did to my corn,” says another.

The perfect circles are typically created by using a rope and cutting/orbiting around a specified central point. In theory, the fastest way to create these new shapes would be to place a triangle or square form around an epicenter and pull ropes out equidistant from that center, lining up with the angles of the shape. By connecting those endpoints, they would create a perfect, larger version of that shape.

We hope that is what’s happening, because if someone has found another way to do this, chances are that person is wasting even more time than necessary.