Soft Circuit Workshop

Winter 2010
The workshops were held at the Gray Area Foundation of the Arts. I had been creating wearable technology pieces for close to five years and welcomed teaching as a new challenge. My primary concern in teaching soft circuitry to beginners was figuring out how to teach physical computing, basic sewing, basic embroidery, and soft circuitry techniques in an integrated, interesting way. I decided to take the idea of an embroidery sampler and modernize it, wherein each new physical computing concept would be lead by a new embroidery stitch. At the end of the class, the students had a sampler that showed the had learned eight embroidery stitches and four electronic concepts.

I also developed a project to make a simple wearable piece, an LED cuff. This project was simplified and used to teach children wearable technology concepts at the Open Make event at the Exploratorium.

Process Images (click on image to enlarge):