Today we had a lecture with Sarah Walker about smart textiles. This was followed by a workshop looking at the basics of e-textiles and how to make circuits. Smart textiles is playing an important role in my work this year so the lecture was of particular interest to me. A lot of the designers and research she was showing was the same as my own which makes me feel I am on the right track but it did include some new people I can look into. As Sarah did her MA at NTU specialising in multi media it was great to talk to her about embroideries role within smart textiles and the reactive dyes for printing which she also worked with. She mentioned she would be available for tutorials later in the year so it will be great to see her again once I have started to develop more of my own ideas for feedback.

Partaking in the workshop after was my first opportunity to work with conductive threads and re learn how to make a circuit. It's given me plenty of ideas of what I can do within my technical development and how it could be used in my project. The thread can be used in a sewing machine which is great and can be hidden with other non conductive embroidery threads. I need to look into different led lights to see what's available as the ones we used today may well be too big or the wrong shape for some of my ideas for example using them with large bugle beads to create a fibre optical look. All in all I'm excited to see where I can this and how it could fit into my project.

A basic circuit...


Conductive thread test...