Escape Hatch Labs

Ian Hanschen has been doing some amazing things with LED matrices at EHL. Check out his stuff.

Check out Ian's soldering job on these LEDs. Notice the RGB LED on the far right - this guy has incredible dexterity.

Conductive Toggle Switch on Instructables

Check out the toggle switch that I invented using conductive velcro that have been using on my projects. It's published on the Instructables site.

Nora Carria

Even though this blog does not focus on my fine sewing and pattern drafting skills, you should know that I do have them. But I really owe that all to Nora Carria, who broke me in. She would throw projects my way and say "I've never done something like this: you figure it out". I did figure some things out, but she was there, when this little sparrow was flapping her wings over a puff sleeve, or a gusset in a crotch, and multiple other pattern drafting dilemmas. She is a fantastic custom clothier and a genius when it comes to flat patternmaking and draping. I was lucky enough to have her as a mentor and I completed my internship with her this summer. She is one of Seattle's best secrets, but I have no intention of keeping it that way.

Contact Nora Carria and ask her to show you the link to her work.

By the way, she came up with the shape of the hat in many of these projects.

Hanging LEDs

Here is a prototype and an idea that I am currently working on for some wall pieces using LEDs. This is basically simple parallel circuit with the conductive thread on the back side of the fabric. I bring the conductive thread through the front and LEDs dangle from it with some simple knots. I'm thinking some of these LED "arrays" could look cool and do some interesting things if there were some sensors inputing some data to make the LEDs blink. And there are always microcontrollers...

Sparrow Makes Another Appearance

I'm not entirely done with this - but it has been a fun quick little project. The outer shell is polar fleece fused on to SewSheer interfacing. The circuits are all conductive. The LEDs are the surface mounts that I soldered crimp beads to.
The switch is in the back and it is conductive velcro. The battery is a 3v lithium ion cell battery that is sewn into the shell and is hidden by the hat - which by the way is beautifully lined in a raspberry acetate.

The sparrow is a little pronounced for my tastes, so I think I will color her.

Richard Clark

If you ever need a hand, or just can't figure it out, perhaps you need to try a new approach, or maybe you need to call in a... Troubleshooter: Richard Clark.

Well.. What can I say about Richard -- Why don't you read what I wrote below.

Hat II Project - in progress

Here is another hat I'm working on. I am waiting on some resistors from Digikey - but as soon as they come - let the fun begin!

Soldering Surface Mount LEDs

NOT BAD FOR NOT HAVING SOLDERED IN 8 YEARS! :)

I've been working on soldering some surface mount (SMD) LEDs. These LEDs are 1/8" long and a 1/16" wide. I attached these crimping beads that I found at a beading store and I used a fine clean tip with a high gauge solder wire. I think I got some good results. The LED next to quarter (near the a in "Dollar" doesn't have any crimping beads soldered onto it - just to give you an idea about how small I'm working here.

The long leads were an experiment for another small wall piece that I am working on. The LEDs aren't exposed here, just the leads with the crimps attached.

HERE IS A GREAT TIP (One that Ian Hanschen came up with): place the the components face down on a piece of tape and nest the beads next to them. The tape holds the beads in place while you solder them. Also you can tin the bead and gently roll it over to the LED or a lead (Leah Buechley method).

Hat

I am moving at a snails pace on the hat...but I am making progress. :) I may leave the circuitry exposed as I am really enjoying the components and stitching exposed.

Bracelet

Here is a bracelet that I knocked out in a few days. All of the stitching is done with conductive thread. The LEDs I found at Vetco in their 100 LEDs for $5 bin. Their old and boxy, so they make really interesting objects in of themselves. I was originally going to cover the bracelet with another layer of felt to cover the circuitry and the resistors, but I'm enjoying the way it looks exposed, so I'll just leave it that way.

Notes from the Lab 9/08 - Conductive Epoxy

I decided to use conductive epoxy on the connections between my "traces" and connections between traces and components on the hat project. I applied a little dabble in these places on one side of the hat, and I had fantastic results.

Unfortunately, when I applied it to the other side of the hat, I lost parts of my circuit. Yikes! What's happening? I am investigating the situation more. In fact, I've ripped out all of the circuitry on that side of the hat and I am now getting ready to sew it all back on by hand.

TEXTILES AND ELECTRONICS LINKS

Vincent Leclerc with XS LABS

Be sure to check out the SKORPIONS project on this page!

MIT Media's lab on wearables.

Leah Buechley
Leah Buechley is a researcher that studies soft circuits specifically. She has tons of info for all experience and level types (novice to hacker) plus lots of good links for materials and kits.

SparkLab

Fashioning Technology

The work of Anouk Wipprecht

Fashion designer and artist Hussein Chalayan.

Joo Yoon Paek

New Brave World - Hybrid Scrapyard

XY Interaction. This is really an EXCITING project involving sensors, electronics, etextiles and music. CHECK THIS OUT - IT IS A MUST.

Lucy McRae is doing some "wow" circuits as well.

Rebecca Horn works with electronics and has been for some time. Her early work uses the body as a point of departure.

Lady Ada is a great Hacker. She works with everything and has great resources and kits for everyone.

CONDUCTIVE EPOXY

I am trying conductive epoxy to seal some of my connections on my circuits. It is QUITE gooey and expensive. These two tubes, which came together, we about $32. I think you can get if for cheaper, if you shop around.

It is a cold solder that is made of silver and resins. The blob closest to the ruler is about 3/8" wide and about 1/16th of inch thick. It has a resistance of about 10 ohms. It takes about 3 hours for it to dry solid.