Conductive Ink Workshop

I've been very behind with blogging about our fantastic craft and smart materials workshops due to job applications and interviews, and writing journal papers so I have quite a bit to catch up on. So I'm going to try and catch up on blogging over the next couple of days.

One of the workshops we ran was using conductive inks to create circuits on paper. We used the inks to draw connections between LEDs and batteries on the cover of cards.

Using conductive ink to paint circuits and connections is pretty magical however the ink can be very gooey and takes quite a long time to dry. Also it is not possible to test the connection until the ink is completely dry so although it is a fairly easy way to build interesting circuits within paper projects it does take a while to find out if your hard work has paid off.

Here is a small blue LED glowing on shiny green card

As it was a few days before Valentines day some people decided to experiment with the use of the ink and create Valentines cards. We also used pearlescent card to give a shimmering effect. I think if we had more time to experiment and design the cards we could have come up with some really interesting designs but instead we used this session to experiment with the ink to see how it works.

If These Walls Could Talk Exhibition

Yesterday I visited the exhibition 'If These Walls Could Talk' in Breightmet, Bolton. This exhibition takes over an entire residential house in order to display pieces of art and celebrate women within the community.

The project was the idea of spoken word artist Louise Wallwein who collaborates with a number of artists, technicians and members of the community in order to give local women a voice.

 Dinning table

I personally found the exhibition to be intelligent, funny and moving featuring hidden surprises everywhere you looked.

 
We were involved as we introduced smart materials to be used within the project. Textile artist Jen Gilmore used these materials in the bedroom and did a stunning job by using EL wire to create glowing lettering in the bedding and sewable LEDs to create a curtain covered in twinkling stars. Our technician Garry programmed a LilyPad Arduino to create sequence for the LEDs. Members of the community painted poems on material using thermochromatic pigments and fabric paint, which were sewn into the beautiful duvet cover.

Another interesting part of the exhibition was the use of sensors and sound. A technician brought in by Louise created triggers within everyday objects that played recordings of spoken word performances from the local women, making this project a fully immersive and interactive experience.

 Triggers found in jewellery boxes, chairs and the microwave.

I had such a wonderful day exploring this amazing house, well done to all the very talented people involved. I only thought I would be there for about half an hour but ended up staying the whole day and joining in with their knitting group. Everyone is really friendly so don't be shy to pop down and have a look.

The exhibition closes on the 22nd March and more details can be found here

Website Workshop Writeup

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

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.

 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.    

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.

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.