Goals and Design:
For this project, I wanted to experiment with making a circuit that could be incorporated into a piece of jewelry. I also was intrigued by the felting tools and wanted to see if I could incorporate felting into my project in some way. Thus, I constructed a necklace with a neoprene pendant that has an LED in the center. When a felted bead on one side of the necklace is squeezed, the LED lights up, brighter as the bead is squeezed more tightly.
Materials and Construction:
I had several failed attempts at making a felted pressure sensor before stumbling upon my current solution. Mixing metal fibers with wool proved unreliable. Too thick a concentration of metal, and a circuit would be closed through the felt regardless of pressure. Too few metal fibers, and the circuit would only close when the felt was squeezed in certain places. I then created a felted bead made from both wool and bits of resistive yarn. The resistance of this bead goes down as it is squeezed. In the necklace, there are two conductive threads going through this bead, one from the battery power and one to the LED in the pendant. Another conductive thread goes from the battery ground to the LED. I added glass beads over the rest of the conductive thread to insulate it. I also interrupted the circuit with a silver magnetic clasp; when the clasp is open, no power goes through the circuit and the battery does not get depleted.
