NYT Home Crafts Get Wired

Alison Lewis, 35, seen here in the Philadelphia home she shares with her boyfriend, is part of a wave of young product designers intent on embedding electronics into "soft" areas like fashion or home furnishings.

For more.

Visit to the Fashion & Textile Museum in London UK

Last week, while at DiGRA, I went to see the 'Undercover' exhibit on underwear at the London Fashion and Textile Museum. Not exactly the topic for our K-12 crowd. Nevertheless, there was one design, which imitated tattoos, that might lend itself for computational textile applications. Designers could use LEDs to reveal a tattoo like a hidden design. It's a bit of a stretch, I admit.

The visit to the book store didn't reveal much; in fact, the bounty was rather sparse. I was much more successful in the Tate Modern bookstore unearthing two more book on computational fabric design (a bit more tangential) and one on computation in fabrics and fashion. More on those as I read them.

Massage Me

Check out Hannah Perner-Wilson's work at http://www.plusea.at/ as well as the KOBAKANT collaboration between Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson posted at www.kobakant.at for some interesting takes on computational textiles like the "Massage Me" work pictured here.

The collaboration explores the realm of wearable technology as a medium for commenting on technological and social aspects. KOBAKANT believes in the spirit of humoring technology, maintaining a twisted criticism toward the stereotypes it creates. Technology is to be hacked, DIYed and modified by everyone to fit our needs and desires.

Thanks to Leslie Sharpe at Indiana University who turned us on to this work!

Podcasts on iTunes / YouTube links

Diane Glosson writes,
"Google alerts led me to http://www.webmarries.com/index.php/2009/08/23/craft-video-lilypad-arduino-blinking-bike-patch-blog/ which then led me to two podcasts on the CRAFT podcast site in iTunes. If you go to iTunes, then podcasts, then on the right hand side under iTunes PICKS click on Crafters. On the crafters page, sort by name and select CRAFT: Craft Podcast, you will find two podcasts #25 (Getting Started-simple circuit 14:31) and #23 (blinking bike patch 12:06)." The files are downloadable.

The files are also viewable on YouTube along with several others on the LilyPad Arduino:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cRKdzIhbZM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj639_ez6TM

Leah at Stanford: History of the LilyPad Arduino

Leah presents at Stanford:
http://castroller.com/podcasts/HumancomputerInteraction5/1172030

In this talk, Leah gives a history of the LilyPad Arduino project, covering the first Lilypad prototypes, various workshops (at around the 25 min mark) and the products made, joining with Sparkfun and ends with the future of the LilyPad... The entire presentation is around an hour.

READY MADE Magazine

Here's another DIY magazine covering a wide range of home, fashion, food and other projects -- definitely more focused on the hip crowd. The blog contains projects from all the past issues -- check out Sew! and Plug it in!

Green Craft Magazine and blog

While at the Barnes & Nobles newsstand I cam across a magazine called Green Craft which also has a blog. It's a new bi-annual publication which features a wide range of projects with recyclable materials. It's a bit Martha Steward-like photographed, but showcases how plastic bags, old t-shirts can be turned into stylish artifacts. The blog has planet of 'how-to' examples and might be good place to get patterns and guides for free.

MAKE magazine

Do I need to say more? Check out Make magzine and associated blog.

CRAFT Magazine

To follow up on the search of print magazines that serve today's DIY crowd, there is of course one promising candidate: the Craft magazine and associated blog.

DIY Magazines newstand -- 100 Idées

Today I spent some time browsing print magazines at Barnes & Noble newsstand to see what's available in the DIY aisle. Well, there is quite a bit on quilting, crocheting, scrapbooking, beads, sewing, knitting, and so on. It all seems to be aimed at a particular audience, more adult, kind of Good Housekeeping gone wild. I was trying in vain to find something hip, like for college students, artsy crowd - like 100 idées (see below). I suspect all of these groups are much better served by online blogs and communities.

When I lived in France in the 80's we had this really cool monthly magazine called 100 ideas -- 100 Ideés -- which really was a whole DIY movement without the technology. It stopped circulation in the late 80's but here's a website (unfortunately in French) with some pics. I actually once knitted the sweater with the clouds for someone -- believe it or not -- I still have the pattern!