Alternative Technologies Workshop

On Saturday I traveled to the wonderful Hebden Bridge to take part in a "Sparkle up your bike" workshop at the Alternative Technology Centre. The aim of the workshop was to demonstrate how to use alternative technologies and smart materials to decorate your bike for The Valley of Lights festival being held in Hebden Bridge tonight.

Another reason why I went along was to make contacts with technicians working with smart materials to see if they wanted to join us in our project we have started running in Bolton. The facilitators of the workshop Garry and Liz were really friendly and enthusiastic about what they do and were interested in our upcoming projects so I'm really hoping we get to work with them in future.

Here is a photo of a dress created by artist and workshop facilitator Liz Hutchinson. This piece has been created from reclaimed newspaper and the flowers are lit with LED's.

Glowing bunting

As we are looking to host a series of workshops within Bolton (in partnership with Bolton at Home) that mixes art/crafts with new technologies I have been experimenting with some of the materials myself. I've been using electroluminescent (EL) wire by stitching them into knitted projects and this is my first attempt:

I used an easy bunting pattern and decided to stitch the EL wire along the outside of the bunting to enable it to glow, it was a little bit tricky but after some practice I think I could make some really exciting and fun projects. I'm really excited about working with all kinds of smart materials and wearable technologies and hope to get the opportunity to use more and fund my new addiction when I find a permanent job. Hopefully this new project will be able to open up whole new opportunities.