Crafting Material Interfaces

Project

Building on my earlier interest in productive conductive papers, I decided to try creating a conductive embroidered circuit on paper, that would be a smaller scale development towards a larger-scale wallpaper that will function also as a fire breaker. The paper ideally will also have thermochromic properties.

The project consists of four segments:
- patterning the circuit
- creating the embroidery
- creating the fire breaker circuit through Arduino
- treating the paper with thermochromic paint.

Challenges

The software for the Bernina machine is … idiosyncratic, to put it mildly. Many hours were spent figuring out the exact work flow that can proceed from a graphic (vector or otherwise) to a pdf transfer to stitch pattern, and finally  a download to the Bernina machine.

Besides, it took a while to master embroidering with conductive threads, and it really seems like a choice between thread-strength (number of ply ) and speed/ease. The strong 4-ply stainless steel thread can handle a lot more current than the 2-ply thread, without burning up, but it is next to impossible to use as a lower thread in embroidery.

The slides from the presentation will tell the story.