Because the motion of flexinol reminded me of the trunk of elephants, I made an elephant, using the flexinol.

First, I sewed to make the flexinol fixed above a paper trunk.

Then I let the flexinol go through the crimp beads and soldered the beads on the copper tape.

Then I added outer layers and made it an elephant head.

However, it didn’t curve exactly as I expected. The shape of the flexinol and stitches might need to be improved.

In folklore, there is a rabbit that lives on the Moon. It pounds medicine and accompanies the Moon Goddess.

For the assignment of this week, I used thermochromic pigment to draw Moon on a piece of fabric and sewed a rabbit on another one. When the rabbit layer is charged, its figure will show on the Moon. One problem with my project is that it’s hard to tell the figure because of the pigment-to-base ratio and the color itself.

This week, I made three speakers using fabric. I did not use the conductive thread to sew. I used normal cotton thread to sew over the conductive one to adhere it to the fabric.

One is made of a square of softer fabric and conductive thread.(fig.1)

fig.1

One is made of a square of softer fabric and conductive yarn.(fig.2)

(fig.2)

Because it’s said the stiffness of fabric will also affect the volume. Too soft ones will absorb the vibration. I thought the fabric I used for the 1st and 2nd was too soft, so for the 3rd one, I changed to a square of stiff fabric. It is made of a square of stiff fabric and conductive thread.(fig.3)

(fig.3)

These are three connectors I made after class.

The first one is made of conductive thread, paracord, heat shrink and chip clips.

The second one is made of paper clips, conductive tape, and normal sealing tape.

The third one is made of safety pins, paracord, heat shrink, and conductive thread.

I used 4 connectors to connect my nodes and they worked.

I  would identify myself as a craftsperson, maker, coder, and storyteller. I enjoy making things by hands. It is like a process of meditation for me. When I am making something, I can totally immerse myself in the work. Coding is another activity that makes me involved in it. It is painful but fun for me. I once thought about giving up coding to just focus on design. Before I pay my tuition deposit to a completely design major, I figured that coding is a part that I can’t throw away. It brought me tough time but excitement as well. I really enjoy it. I also like stories, especially fairy tales, but I am not a writer. I prefer to featuring stories in various, innovative ways. I would like to incorporate the stuff I like, such as handicraft and programming, into stories, and represent stories from new perspectives. It could be a game, an installation, a toy, an experience, etc. 

My favorite wool is paper. The potential of paper is infinite. A plat paper can be made into a 3D world. It can be transformed into almost everything you want. From my childhood, without other tools, I can spend a whole day on a piece of paper. I used to be more familiar to paper folding. Then after I touched more techniques of paper engineer, like pop up designs, I entered a now world of paper. What’s more, there are tons of different kinds of paper. They have various attributions. With paper, you really can make your ideas go crazy.

For this week, I tried out a new craft- embroidery. I just worked on simple sewing before. When mentioning embroidery, a scene, in which young girls in olden days embroidered in elegant manor houses, comes to my mind. Then I chose to try this. During this process, I try 4 different kinds of stitches, namely split stitch, stem stitch, satin stitch, and chain stitch. It’s not as difficult as I imagined. All it needs is patience. When I stitched from scratch and witnessed a pattern coming into being, I was so happy and became more concentrated on it. The most frustrating part was that sometimes the front side was nice and smooth while the backside was a mess- threads are tangled. I found that this was because the thread is too long for I did not want to repeat threading a needle. Because of my laziness, I spent extra time on the tangled thread and the back sides were still not nice. So maybe sometimes, we have to do things step by step, otherwise shortcuts might cost more. For others who would like to embroider, I figure that the length of threads should be proper, and remember to pay attention to the back sides as well.

This week, I made switches, using paper.

First, I tried a momentary switch.(Fig.1) When you bend it, it will be turned off.

 Fig.1

Then I tried many other forms of paper switches.(Fig.2,3,4) But they didn’t work well. Because after the paper was folded, it can not be perfectly flat. Then it’s still an open circuit after the switch was turned off.

     Fig.2,3,4

Therefore, I kept working on paper switches like the 1st momentary switch. (Using bending). The 1st switch is a normal switch. (Fig5, 6).

      Fig.5,6

The second one is switches in parallel. When you bend the whole piece, you will make 6 parallel circuits open.

     Fig.7,8

The third one(Fig.9). There are two switches in parallel. When you bend it, Circuit A will be open, Circuit B will be closed.  When the paper is flat, A will be closed, B will be open.

Fig.9

The fourth one(Fig. 10,11) There are two switches in parallel.One is a digital switch, the other is a switch containing a bend sensor. When you bend it towards you, the circuit is closed without resistors. The light is bright. When you bend it backwards, the circuit is closed. The light is dim and the brightness can change.

      Fig.10,11