#polyalphabetic cipher

[sprinklecipher]

Barbie Enigma Wheel

A while back I found out that there was a Barbie typewriter that had some basic encryption functionality to it, and, being a Very Normal lady, I thought it would be neat to have a Barbie-themed encryption device that offered a bit better cryptographic security. So, I got a polyalphabetic cipher wheel off Etsy and finished it in Barbie colors. I was initially planning to add decals to it as well, but I couldn’t find anything that looked decent with it.

The gist for how it works to encode is that you alternate which of the wheels you use for the input (so for the first letter, you’d encode by pointing a letter to the arrow on the first wheel, then you’d switch to the second, and so on).    

I couldn’t decide at first whether I wanted the wheels to be purple or teal, so I went with purple for the front and teal for the back. In hindsight, the teal probably captures the Barbie typewriter vibes better than the purple, but oh well.

Also, random word to the wise, don’t use Mod Podge on the teal color of Unicorn Spit—it’ll mess everything up horribly (even though it works just fine with the purple and pink colors).