Description:

Wearable lights are an uptrending component of tomorrow's fashion. Now's the chance to explore the world of wearable light art. Participants in this class will learn several techniques for augmenting their style with a bit of light-up flair. One session will be a class on electroluminescent (EL) wire, a popular material for creating brightly lit linear patterns on clothing, accessories, and more! The second session will focus on creating simple circuits with LEDs and camera batteries to create wearable light accessories.

Class Goals:

Participants in this class will have the opportunity to experiment with a variety of simple EL and LED-based light projects. The goal of this class is to introduce people with less experience in electronic media to some of the possibilities available to make their clothes and artwork shine.

Prerequisites:

This will be suitable for beginners to sewing in general. Participants should take some time beforehand to brainstorm and come up with 2-3 potential uses for light in their costumes, clothes, or wearable art. Bringing a vision to the class will help participants get the most out of it; however, some suggested projects will be available to work on. No prior experience with electronics or soldering necessary.

Materials:

Materials will be available for purchase from the instructor.

EL Wire class: $20 total

• 5' of EL wire [[http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.ACCT88394/it.A/id.743/.f][High Bright Long Life- 2.6mm (#WHBS)]] $7
• 4 AAA batteries, y connector
• 2-18' driver [[http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.ACCT88394/it.A/id.64/.f][Pocket Pack Driver (DPP-D15)]] $8
  

Aniomagic class: $25 total

• 1 Aniomagic "Sparkle" microcontroller $9.95 6 Aniomagic LED boards $6
• 1 battery holder / switch $1.50
• 1 watch battery $2
• 10 yards conductive thread $5

[aniomagic may not ship in time in which case similar LED components will be available]

Instructor Biography:

Rachel has been working with light art and LEDs for the past two years. She basically followed the track of this class in learning how to make fun things out of blinky bits. She's currently involved with an ongoing project called Chromodynamic Playground (chrmodynamics.org) that uses LED light arrays in interactive art installations.