Category / Craft Connects

Craft Connects is a collaboration with members of Farnborough Library. The aim of the project was to create an interactive book with different members of the community. I worked with the knitting group to create the cover, young people, and people with learning difficulties. We developed a large pop-up book and recorded snippets of our lives along the way which were embedded into the book, and could be activated using paper circuits. I was also invited to a celebration event to make simple shadow lanterns.

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  • Glowing paper lanterns

    A lot of fun was had making these silhouette-paper-lanterns at Farnham Festival of Crafts. We made simple circuits using coper tape, and a bit of conductive ink to glue (I mean *cold solder*) the components.

  • Craft Connects Book

    Here is the final version of the Craft Connects book! Play the video link to see it in action. I am especially happy with how the knitted triangles came together. The cover looks fantastic, and when you link the letters C R A F T to the knitted triangle labelled “connect”, you trigger sound-bytes from…

  • Knitted book cover

    To make the knitted book cover I had the the help of the Farnborough knit and natter group, and the Nepalese craft group. Both groups worked together to make loads of triangles, which I then stitched together. English and Nepalese casting on techniques are quite different, and the two groups learned from each other. I…

  • Stitching Circuits

    Another tricky part of the process was connecting to the pins -i.e. making a breakout board for conductive thread. After a skype “consultation” with Seb and Hannah, who both work on a really exciting glove project and are experts in e-textiles, I decided to solder wires to the live pins, and then padded them with…

  • Book binding with circuits

    Binding the book was no easy task. Originally, I had planned to bind using coptic technique which I had learned from one of the studio technicians when studying at Leeds College of Art. This would have worked by binding the book as usual, whilst also working the circuits into the back of each page with…

  • Paper Switches

    So we have lots of creative work by members of Farnborough library, we have some stories and sound bites, and we have a small device to play these back. Now to put them all together and make the book! We made 18 sound recordings in total, and I saved these recordings with the file name…

  • Hacking Speakers

    For the speakers in the Farnborough community book, I used some travel speakers -they are cheaper, but much better quality than the speakers you can buy for projects like this. the only draw back is you need to hack them apart. If you try this make sure you buy speakers with screws! I bought some…

  • Putting the MP3 together

    I am *incredibly* excited about adding a mini MP3 trigger to the community book I am making. What this means is that whilst making the artwork for the pages of book, we can also record short sound bites and then play them back in the book through some mini speakers. The trigger has 18 tracks,…

  • Craft Connects

    I am working on the Craft Connects residency in a library in Hampshire. The residency is all about connecting communities through craft, and I have been based at Farnborough Library (a colourful, bustling, learning space). I am making a giant pop-up book with different community groups. The book will be larger than life, have a…