Spinning Wheels

Rumplestiltskin's Spinning Wheel is an item featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the fifth episode of the first season.

Before the Curse
Rumplestiltskin has had his spinning wheel since Baelfire was a child during the Ogre Wars. It appeared in his small home where they lived together and again, later, in the main room of his grand house where he held Belle captive.

Rumplestiltskin is periodically depicted sitting at his wheel and spinning, lost in thought. He claims it helps him forget. When Belle asks him what he was trying to forget he says he forgot, implying that the spinning wheel was indeed effective.

After the Curse
Mr. Gold makes a promise to Belle that he will not use his magic to get revenge on Regina, but he goes ahead and summons a Wraith to chase and suck out her soul. Belle is deeply disappointed that he went back on his word, and leaves the pawnshop in tears of frustration. Later, Mr. Gold is spinning his wheel absentmindedly when Belle comes back.

Belle wakes up from a nightmare in which Mr. Gold becomes his old, cruel self as Rumplestiltskin. She gets out of bed and looks for him; only to find him spinning his wheel and making potions.

David's voluntary submission to the Sleeping Curse is enacted by him pricking his finger on the spinning wheel's spindle, which Gold refers to as "the old-fashioned way".

Trivia

 * While he is most often seen spinning on a Great Wheel, the wheel that is present in his cottage during "Desperate Souls" is a Saxony wheel, suggesting that he either has multiple spinning wheels or he exchanged his Saxony wheel for a Great Wheel after obtaining the Dark One's powers.
 * It is a key element from the original fairytale, Rumpelstiltskin. Rumplestiltskin uses the spinning wheel to turn straw into gold. Belle remarks that he has spun more straw into gold than he could possibly spend.
 * David Nolan pricking his finger on the spindle is the same way "Sleeping Beauty" succumbed to the Sleeping Curse in "Sleeping Beauty".

Appearances
Rumpelstilzchens Spinnrad Rueca_de_Rumplestiltskin Rouet de Rumplestiltskin