I wanted to I have always been fond of crafting, but I always had difficulties when dealing with materials, so I wanted to take this opportunity to play around more with conductivity in materials as well as finding ways to work around them.

For this project, I created a series of necklace charms that also serve as tilt switches. Initially, I wanted the whole circuit to be integrated within the charms, but I couldn’t work around the circuit, so I decided to leave copper flaps on the backside of the charm so I can keep working on them for later projects.

The circuit itself is fairly simple, as the tilting relies mostly on either the dangling copper objects touching or the conductive threads touching.

I began by cutting out shapes and covering them with copper sheets. This process was actually hard as the copper sheets kept ripping off. I had to use a thick double sided tape to make the copper sheets stay in place. I also covered some beads with copper tape. Then I attached the conductive wire across the shapes and the beads.

Then I sew the tape onto a piece of felt and expanded the wire with copper tape and made flaps. I also covered the copper tape with a layer of tape so they wouldn’t overlap and short circuit.

Then I sew the two sides together and attached the charm caps.

If further expanded, these charms could be converted into earrings; and would work very well in rave parties, where movement and lighting add to the atmosphere.

Demo video:

I chose a quote from one of my favorite comic strips, Mafalda:

I chose my favorite scene from the strip, which was the last scene. I wanted the audience to have an interactive experience with the scene, so that when they pressed onto the comic, it would light up and can be read in the dark as well.

I began the process by tracing the drawing onto rice paper (I wanted a material that was relatively translucent but not enough to see through). Then I cut the foam board into a small box.

Then I made a parallel circuit with copper tape underneath to light up 3 LEDs.

One of the difficulties I encountered was getting the pressure to work as the foam was too hard to press onto. To solve this I had to use a combination of cotton pads and cardboards to fix underneath the pressure point. Once it worked, I sealed the box.

Documentation Video:

Leah Buechley’s Bike Signal Project is a wearable jacket that acts as a signaling system for bikers to indicate their path of travel to other drivers/bikers. Made in the MIT Media Lab in 2008, it contains a LilyPad, which controls the lights in the back. If the user is about to turn left, s/he can press the left button and the left signal on the back will light up. If the user wants to turn right, s/he can press the right button.

This jacket serves as an inspiration for my thesis as I am looking into the possibilities of raising awareness for danger and how can we become more aware of our environments through fashion and wearable. I am researching into the possibilities of expanding human capabilities with animal self-defense mechanisms, and I believe that the mechanics of this wearable is the first step to understanding how and why such systems should be necessary for garments.