Our research project and series of workshops we are running with Bolton at Home made the news section on the University of Bolton website:
http://www.bolton.ac.uk/MediaCentre/Articles/2013/Feb2013-3.aspx
Friday, 8 February 2013
Craft and Smart Materials Workshop
This week we (myself and Rachel McLean) hosted the first of our craft and smart materials workshop in Bolton. We were awarded funding from Bolton at Home to run these workshops within the area of Breightmet in Bolton which has been identified as a fragmented and deprived community.
This workshop was held at Breightmet Community Church and the craft group is led by the wonderful Jen Gilmore who also runs Stitch Me Lane fabrics (and coincidentally was a participant within my PhD interviews).
We brought in technician Garry from the Alternative Technology Centre in Hebden Bridge to introduce smart materials to the group and helped participants create their own soft circuits. He brought in a whole bag of tricks including conductive threads, sewable LED's and LilyPad Arduinos.
We had an extremely fun and rewarding day which is hopefully a sign for good things to come. Here is one of the participants Caroline who worked a soft circuit LED into bird patterned fabric. She was so pleased with what she had created (as you can see in the picture) and I hope I get the opportunity to interview her next time.
We have a few more workshops already booked and more to come so watch this space to keep up to date with further developments.
This workshop was held at Breightmet Community Church and the craft group is led by the wonderful Jen Gilmore who also runs Stitch Me Lane fabrics (and coincidentally was a participant within my PhD interviews).
We brought in technician Garry from the Alternative Technology Centre in Hebden Bridge to introduce smart materials to the group and helped participants create their own soft circuits. He brought in a whole bag of tricks including conductive threads, sewable LED's and LilyPad Arduinos.
Some of the materials we used on the day
(sorry for some of the blurry pics it was a very sunny outside and I took a couple of action shots)
We had an extremely fun and rewarding day which is hopefully a sign for good things to come. Here is one of the participants Caroline who worked a soft circuit LED into bird patterned fabric. She was so pleased with what she had created (as you can see in the picture) and I hope I get the opportunity to interview her next time.
We have a few more workshops already booked and more to come so watch this space to keep up to date with further developments.
Thursday, 13 December 2012
Xmas Gift Tags
I decided to make some tags for people's Christmas gifts this year. I picked up these awesome rubber stamps and brown paper tags from the Paperchase sale last year and used some metallic blue ink to place a snowflake on each one.
The ink pad was actually supposed to be silver as that's what it looked like before I used it. It did actually say it was metallic blue on the back but I guess that's what you get for judging something on face value. Anyway I loved this project as stamping is so much fun, it's simple and so effective. I'm hoping to pick up some more bits and pieces in the sale again this year too.
The ink pad was actually supposed to be silver as that's what it looked like before I used it. It did actually say it was metallic blue on the back but I guess that's what you get for judging something on face value. Anyway I loved this project as stamping is so much fun, it's simple and so effective. I'm hoping to pick up some more bits and pieces in the sale again this year too.
Thursday, 29 November 2012
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.
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.
Friday, 16 November 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Knitted Kittens Halloween
Here's the new Halloween themed poster designed by Sophie Daniel for the next Knitted Kittens on the 6th November. OK it's a few days after Halloween but Sophie has really managed to catch the spookiness of the season. Hope you can make it x
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Charity Squares
We have decided to do a bit of charity work at Knitted Kittens to bring the group together and reach further into the community. We have decided to make knitted/crochet squares to stitch together to make blankets for The Society of Abandoned Animals based in Stretford, Manchester. More details can be found here: http://www.saarescue.co.uk/
Knitted Kittens artist Sophie Daniel has made us a beautiful poster with more information if you would like to get involved.
I've started making some squares already, please contact me if you would like some more information.
I have already contacted them and they would be really grateful for as many blankets as possible, even one would make a difference so please get knitting.
Knitted Kittens artist Sophie Daniel has made us a beautiful poster with more information if you would like to get involved.
I've started making some squares already, please contact me if you would like some more information.
I have already contacted them and they would be really grateful for as many blankets as possible, even one would make a difference so please get knitting.
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