Tag: featured

LED Frog & Fireflies Embroidery

This picture of a frog catching fireflies is embellished with lights that bring the bugs to life. Conductive thread is the magic ingredient, bridging the gap between rigid metal and soft floss. To make a stitched scene light up, combine traditional embroidery techniques with a few common electronics components. The possibilities are endless, and the result is an artful conversation piece.  This was written as a tutorial for my LED Sewing Kit, where you can include LEDs into an embroidered picture or into a garment of your choice.

Materials and Tools

Supplies & Tools
Electronic Embroidery Frog PatternDownload
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Iceberg

Iceberg
Cotton/Linen Yarn, Acrylic, Sterling Silver, MDF, Ice
2009

This iceberg is made from cotton/linen yarn and then stiffened with acrylic. Inside is a polar bear made from ice which slowly melts down and out through the sterling silver drain on the sloped platform. The iceberg itself was made using a knotless netting technique.

This photo is by Matt Mets. Check out more photos at my Flickr set.

Vicodin Ring

Vicodin Ring

In Case of Emergency
Sterling Silver, Vicodin
2009

To go with my Vicodin earrings, here’s a ring with a bezel-set pill instead of a stone.

Vicodin Ring and Pendant

This photo is by Victoria Altepeter.

Plush Knee

my knee sculpture and video

Ouch, My Femoral Condyle!
Synthetic Fiber and Batting, Steel Stand, DVD Video
2009

I’ve completed the plush model of my knee working from my MRI and arthroscopy images, plus anatomical illustrations I found online. It’s capable of dislocating, just like my real knee, and uses elastic to make the ligaments stretch when the joint is bent. It’s my best soft sculpture yet. Still no fibula. The title is “Ouch, my Femoral Condyle,” after the place on my femur where the cartilage was torn.

I made a video to be displayed with the knee, which is a combination of video shots of my knee dislocating combined with MRI animations and arthroscopy stills. Warning: I’ve been told it’s not for the squeamish.

Plush Knee

Related project: Embroidered MRI Slices

Machine-Knitted QR Code Scarf

Turn a 2D barcode into a knitted scarf! Originally posted to CRAFT.

This is a fun way to get information from a garment into an electronic device, such as a cell phone equipped with a barcode-scanning camera. Anyone who takes a picture of my scarf can decode the message. I used Photoshop to modify the QR code I got from Kaywa (whose barcode scarf inspired me to make my own!) into a usable knitting pattern, but you could easily use graph paper instead. I programmed the pattern into my computerized knitting machine, a Brother KH 930. If you know how to do stranded knitting, you can knit this without a machine – just use really small needles!

Artificial Sweetener Tablecloth

I constructed this tablecloth from artificial sweetener packets and packing tape. I made the underlying tablecloth, too, then topped the whole thing with a protective (and even more artificial) layer of vinyl. I’m having trouble coming up with a title for this piece. So far I’ve got “You’re Sweet Enough Already,” do you have any suggestions?

If you like this project, try these others!