Most Recent Posts

Over the years, we’ve designed and built a variety of small compact circuits that translate electrical resistance into something we can perceive like: light, sound, vibration. This post intents to pull together all these different items in one place. To see if there are insights I’d forgotten about as well as a pool of inspiration […]

April 18 2019, 11-17:00, Junge Tüftler, Berlin // This workshop is only open to Junge Tüftler MitarbeiterInnen. Adventuring with Materials – a proposal for getting lost and coming home by Hannah Perner-Wilson Building electronics have become very much a learning about the functionality of electronic components, and not an experiencing of the electrical properties of […]

This is an example project/ experiment to use Bela board with e-Textile sensors. Here, I am making crochet blanket with exposed conductive pieces so one can use their skin resistance to “play” music by touching different part of the blanket. The blanket was originally made for a small workshop, and it was connected to Teensy […]

Workshop and talk at Kabutze in Greifswald/Germany – both will be held in German Sa & So 11./12.Mai, 10-18 Uhr ALWAYS ON Werkzeugschürzentasche mit E-Textile Funktion “With my tools at hand I pay attention to things I’ve never seen before” Ob Künstler, Hackerin, Tischler oder Designer_in: In diesem Workshop zeigt dir Hannah vom Künstlerinnenkollektiv Kobakant, […]

Electronic Textile is a technique that uses metalized or carbon infused thread and fabric to create electronics. You can knit sensors and embroider speakers. In this workshop, you will be introduced how to crochet a touch sensor with conductive threads. The finished crochet sensor will be connected as one big crochet blanket that plays back […]

June 9-15, 2019 at Shakerag in Sewanee Tennessee/USA Electricity does not have to be cased up inside slick metal enclosures; we can also let it flow through painted pine-cones, carved traces, and the water in our bodies. The segregation of our abilities into discrete disciplines leaves gray areas to be explored and missing links to […]

Swatches that showcase some of the things you can do with the Lulu Daisy – a design solution to connecting e-textiles, LEDs and optic-fibers. – 3 swatches – 6 mini crocodile clips – 1 breadboard with Teensy and crocodile clip connections for (+3V, GND, Data) demo code: cycles through one swatch at a time. was […]

We’ve been working on the Lulu (a design solution to connecting e-textiles, LEDs and optic-fibers) for some time now, and spent a lot of time looking at how we can mount LEDs at a right angle on PCBs and couple the LED with the end of the optic-fiber, but what we have not spent much […]

February 11-15 2019, taught by Paula Te and Hannah Perner-Wilson at the Copenhagen Institute for Interaction Design in Copenhagen, Denmark

Photos >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157705181925511

When we think of what is unusual and unusual in our lives, how do we draw the boundaries that define these categories? The idea of preparing a presentation on “UNusual E-Textile Techniques” appealed to me maybe because I feel much of what made e-textiles attractive to me at the start (12 years ago in 2006) […]

January 21-25 2019, KOBA in Berlin, Germany We have been running our KOBA E-Textile Tailorshop for one year now. During this time we’ve been refining our skills in some of the most basic techniques like making hard-soft connections and detachable parts. But we have also been confronted with learning bespoke tailoring skills in taking a […]

Lulu is a hardware solution that interfaces between an LED light source, an optic fiber strand or bundle, and sewable soft circuit connections. Lulu is providing a simple, reliable toolset for people who want to use side glow optical fibers in their eTextile and wearable projects. Use of light in textile and fashion design is […]

January 2018, hosted jointly by Interface Cultures and Fashion and Technology departments at the Art University Linz, Austria * * * This workshop is only open to Art University Linz students. Students should only sign up for this course if they can commit to attending the full schedule (see bellow). * * * For the […]

A simple pressure sensor matrix made from two Kapton film sheets with 7×7 copper tape traces and a piece of velostat or Eeonyx piezoresistive material in between.

A snap connection not only makes for a robust e-textile electrical connector, it also make for a great pivot point. When you have a single electrical connection to make the snap can double as both electrical connection and pivot point. But what when you have more than one electrical connection?

For the Lulu

Sick of LEDs shining directly in your eyes? We are too! This design has the LEDs mounted inside the curves of this serpentine strip so that the LED faces down towards the the fabric and what you see is the light reflected off the surface of the fabric.

Nov 29,30,Dec 4,9,2018 10:00- 17:00 elab Weissensee Art Academy Berlin. Assignment The next 2 days will be something like mini hackathon. It is time for you to explore what these textile sensors can do as interface and think about different types of interaction with digital technology. For this, we give ourselves a framework/story. Inspired by […]

We very kindly received samples of this elastic conductive thread made with Statex conductive thread from Filix in France. We have not had time to use/test them for anything yet, but will post about it here as soon as we do. SC 4194 ECRU NF CC LY800 DC SS35µ+Cu40-PA2/78/68 Core : LYCRA 800 DTEX Cover […]

swing, sway, wave, trail, quiver, quake, judder, jiggle, jig, joggle, jog, jerk, waggle, wiggle, wriggle, wobble, shake, shiver, shudder, squirm, slant, lean, tip, slope, incline, dip, angle, twitch, totter, teeter, tremble, rock, roll, flutter, flap, vibrate, oscillate, convulse …work in progress… This beaded sway sensor was designed to capture the swinging, swaying, jerking, tilting movements […]

Build a simple circuit with an LED, a coin-cell battery pouch and interrupt the full circuit connection by inserting two crocodile clips. When the clips connect, the circuit is complete and the LED light will shine. When you mount a textile sensor between the clips, the LED brightness will depend on the resistance of the […]

A metal clothing button and a button hole that works as state switch. When it is fastened, the connection is made, and if you open the button, the connection gets broken. *This sensor is inspired by the Swatch exchange sample “Button Switch” by Ricardo O’Nascimento Step by Step Cut a hole on the fabric. Make […]

See also Button Button >> http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=7328

Surely a button Is self-explanatory And yet causes stress (haiku from Kate Fletcher’s Craft of Use, p20) This post covers a few different ways you can construct your own electrical “pushbutton” or embed a ready-made mechanical pushbutton (also known as momentary switch) into a textile button. What is nice about the mecanical mechanism is that […]

October 24-26 2018, 17-20:30 (10h), at ČIPke in Ljubljana, Slovenia

You can make your own mini-breadboards by cutting up a larger one. Flickr set >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/sets/72157672660416318 Peel back the stick and remove the metal from the rows you will cut: Cut: Replace the sticky: Five mini breadboard from one long one:

August 20-25 2018, KOBA in Berlin, Germany INTRODUCTION For the last 6 months KOBAKANT have been running KOBA, a tailorshop for electronic textiles and wearable technology in Berlin, Germany. The KOBA School of Wickedfabrics is intended as a time and place for us to formalize our tailoring process and share this experiance with you. This […]

“arduino is an open source computer hardware and software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices and interactive objects that can sense and control objects in the physical and digital world.” (wikipedia>>) Arduino website >> https://www.arduino.cc/ in this workshop, we use Flora, which is […]

Textile Sensors One can make different types of sensors. Some sensors have two states, “on” or “off”, or another words, “contact” or “no contact” like on/off switches of a light. Other sensors have range of states, like a dimmer of a light. The two state kind of sensors are digital sensors, and the sensors that […]

August 6-11, 2018 at KOBA Explore the Material collect samples and make a page for your swatch book. Please check: How much resistance? What are the characteristics? (physical/ electrical) Does it change its conductivity? if so how, what is the changing range? Multimeter We can not see the electrons flowing. So we can not tell […]

Time: May 16,18 2018 10:00- 17:00 (15:00 on 16th) Time: May 30, June 1 2018 10:00- 17:00 Location: eLab, Weissensee Art Academy Berlin This workshop is only open to KHB students This is a series of 4 workshops to learn how one can move textile surface with electricity. In the first workshop, participants will learn […]

For the KOBA Prescilla commission we used this solution for making our own “Lulu” e-textile to LED to optic-fiber solution.

For the last 6 months KOBAKANT have been running KOBA, e-textile tailorshop in Berlin, Germany. During this time we’ve been refining our skills in some of the most basic techniques like making hard-soft connections and detachable parts. But we have also been confronted with learning bespoke tailoring skills in taking a customer’s ideas from concept […]

A modular system for prototyping the exact placement of sensors, to be able to use/try/test them before finalizing where they go! Nadja Kutz has been developing all kinds of ideas for making herself datagloves (and senor-wear) to allow her to interact with her computer in alternate (more healthy) ways. One nice quick&cheap solutions she has […]

A dataglove made from piezoresistive fabric with safetey pin connectors that can be pinned to different parts of the glove to capture stretch in different areas. Links: E-Textile Dataglove Overview: http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=6730 Dataglove Overview: http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=7114 Flickr set: https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157679861886694/ Using the snap diamond breakout board design >> http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=6703

Inspired by this upcoming workshop during E-Textile Spring Break titled “Body to Body: RFID + PAN Workshop, where Ingo + Nicole will “…introduce a DIY implementation of these systems to pass data through bodies to other bodies”. To make the connection between the body and the breadboard, this bracelet has conductive fabric on the back/bottom […]

This connector makes the connection between a piece of 1,5mm diameter sideglow fiber optic and an SMD Neopixel (controllable RGB LED). The four connections from the LED are broken out to rings on a tube which holds the LED on one end and holds the fiber optic from the other end. Thanks to Ben for […]

EMF (Electro Magnetic Field) is all around us, but we do not see or hear them. By amplifying it with EMF amplifier, you can listen to them. Many artists work with EMF amplifiers in their artistic expressions. One can also use E-Textile techniques to make soft textile antennas and create wearable EMF listeners. In E-Textile […]

velostat is NOT a piezoresistive material!

In order to create our own version of a “Northbelt” built into the elastic of a jumpsuit waistband, we developed a technique for laying out the circuit’s traces along the length of the elastic, and then jumping inside to tight-fitting pouches that fit vibration motors mounted on 2x5cm boards. The traces from the circuit run […]

After tearing apart some classic and novel datagloves, I realized it would be so simple to layout and produce a version of these multiple flex sensor rigs using a vinylcutter, some Kapton film and tape, copper tape sheets and velostat – to make an extended version of this stickytape sensor design.

When making eTextile circuit, the solder joint between hard component and conductive textile material tend to break as it get the most strain from flexing. To avoid this, the whole circuit can be placed on a fabric button so that it does not get bent. Here is the test LED embroidery circuit on a fabric […]

Based on the idea of this Common GND breadboard (electronic components) to snap (textile) connector, I wanted to think-through the work-flow of using such a breakout board that would allow me to prototype both circuit and wearable, with iterations and testing in between, without always re-designing how the two are connected.

Analyzing what it means to make a “soft circuit”, which today still means combining a mix of soft and hard components.

As part of thinking about robustness and durability in our e-textile tailor shop, I’m revisiting some of the ways we’ve been making permanent and detachable connections between hard and soft components of e-textile circuits.

A collection of different ways to store coin-cell batteries (CR2032). One picture per method, with links to further documentation where available.

New manufacturers and distributors are always popping up and disappearing again. In this post we try to list some of our most used e-textile materials and where we purchase. Since we are based in Berlin/Germany we try to order as much as possible from local manufacturers and distributors/redistributors. We even started a list of super […]

E-Textiles + Jugend Hackt = Interactive Alpaca T-Shirt

Stereo audio jack socket: USB power: Upgrade: JST LiPo:

“ohne mich” (engl. “without me”) Interactive Fiber-Optic Poetry in Motion For the opening collection of our KOBA Maßschneiderei – an E-Textile Tailor Shop we are opening in Berlin very soon – we are prototyping the items in this collection. One of these is fiber-optic poetry, two words embroidered in fiber-optics cables, but overlaid so that […]

Using beads to insulate multiple conductive threads next to one another coming from an e-textile circuit, ending in male header pins.

Sewing Karl-Grimm copper conductive thread as bottom bobbin thread in sewing machine and soldering cut up pieces from a Neopixel strip to these lines to have custom placement and spacing.

14-17th November 2017 hosted jointly by Interface Cultures and Fashion and Technology departments at the Art University Linz, Austria * * * This workshop is only open to Art University Linz students. Students should only sign up for this course if they can commit to attending the full schedule (see bellow). * * * >> […]

Week 5 on the 21st of October 2017 as part of the Fabricademy As part of the Fabricademy we will teach one of the week sessions introducing electronics textiles as a field of making soft, flexible, wearable electronics. Students will learn techniques by copying swatches as well as producing their own unique designs. In this […]

This credit-card size flex circuit translates the resistance between two probes into the resistor colour code. Conveniently the resistor colour code chart can be mounted just bellow the LEDs so that you don’t actually have to remember it for this tool to be useful. This version is a first prototype and with through-hole components not […]

Made during PIFcamp 2017, this textile sensor detects the impact of a conductive pendulum slapping against the wristband when the wrist is twisted back and forth in a flicking action. The conductive pendulum is made from a small heavy stone collected by the Soca river that has been sewn into a stretch conductive pouch.

These Sonic Insoles demonstrate a simple way of adding pressure sensors in your shoes. Fusing strips of conductive fabric to the surface of a robust base material such as felt. Cutting shapes of piezoresistive fabric for the pressure sensitive areas. Punching holes for sewing and using thick thread to hold everything together.

in progress… Inspired by Vaclav’s Magic Shoe connections… Poke wires through strips of conductive fabric and soldered them to stripy protoboard. Solder quickly at low heat to avoid that the heat of the soldering will melt the stretch conductive fabric and burn the conductive layer of silver.

These textile sensor demos were made for the Soft Circuits for Soft Bodies workshop at the eTextile Summer School 2017.

— work in progress — Making electrical connections and not making electrical connections are the most common challenges when working with electronic textiles. This chart lists a variety of materials and ways of making connections (making contact) and not making connections (insulating) between them.

This wearable tool translates resistance into colour and sound.

Breadboard to Metal Snap Converter The worlds of electronics and textiles are separated by their inability to connect across shared connections. But in the world of electronic textiles you want to be able to share power, data, GND. To bridge this gap, and make electrical connections between these separated worlds, I made this breadboard to […]

30th July – 5th August 2017, at PIFcamp in Slovenia. KOBAKANT will be joining PIFcamp this year to design and build “all-natural wearable technology”. Merging natural and technical materials and mechanisms to produce a new style of technological cladding – wearables to protect us from the future.

22 – 23 July 2017, at Les Moulins de Paillard in Poncé-sur-le-Loir, France eTextile Summer Fest is a weekend long event that is open to everyone who would like to join. The event will be held at the Paillard Centre d’Art Contemporain & Résidence d’Artistes, Poncé sur le Loir, France. If you are curious to […]

Interactive Improvisational Perfomance of Calligraphy, movement and sound Time: June 4th 2017 17:00- Location: the Apartment Project Berlin (Hetzbergstrasse 13, 12055 Berlin) http://berlin.apartmentproject.org/ Aoi Yamaguchi (Japanese Calligraphy) > http://aoiyamaguchi.com/ Schneider TM (Experimental Music) > http://schneidertm.net/ Ozgur Erkok (Performance) > http://ozgurerkok.blogspot.de/ Mika Satomi (Sensor embedded costume and Interactive system) > http://www.kobakant.at/ Aoi, Schneider TM and Mika […]

As I got a new stretchy fusible/heat bond from Bemis, I started to experiment with bonding fabrics with iron. Making bend sensor with this technique is super quick, super easy and works very very well as a sensor. Rachel Freire has been working a lot with the heat bond and eTextiles as second skin project […]

The following is a collection of Datagloves made using electrically conductive fabrics that react to strain (stretch, pressure) with a change in electrical resistance (piezoresistive effect), allowing them to sense the movement of the fingers. Connections are made from these fabrics to classic electrical wires and circuitboards, so that a microcontroller can translate these analog […]

June 26th – 29th during the NODE Festival in Frankfurt, Germany Not a workshop, but a participatory performance. The VVunsch VVerkstatt is an installation/intervention that deals with making wishes come true. Throughout the NODE festival the VVunsch VVerkstatt will provide a place for discussing the role of technology as a tool for making wishes come […]

Time: May 19,20 2017 10:00- 17:00 as a part of Weissensee Art Academy Berlin, Soft Interactive Technology 2 course Location: Print Lab and eLab, Weissensee Art Academy Berlin In this second part of the Soft Interactive Technology 2 course, we will have 2 days of experimenting with thermochromic screen printing on textile and designing the […]

Wednesday 10th May 2017, 17:30 – 19:30 at the Toronto Wearables Meetup at the Social Body Lab at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada. Pins are sharp and familiar, abundant and conductive. Used in textiles as tools for prototyping, to make quick connections between materials. Lets examine these pins closer, treat them as materials themselves and […]

A breakout board for the ATtiny84. Designed to sit on the back of the hand and interface to 5 textile stretch sensors on three fingers. Reading their analog values and translating them into lighting patterns as well as sending their analog sensor data over serial rx and tx connections.

Please also see SMA smocking post >> http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=5276 Smocking is an old textile technique that gathers fabric in certain pattern to create 3D decorative pattern on textiles. There are many tutorials and patterns online, but I had a nice reference book called The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff. From many smocking patterns, I […]

It is tricky to make a good connection as it does not really stick to solder. Yes, if you are patient, you can drop a lot of solder on copper tape (or other type of copper surface) and dip the edge of the SMA to connect. But, it is tricky. Another way is to crimp […]

You need to “train” or memorize the shape, in order for SMA (Shape Memory Alloy) to change its shape to what you like. There are many tutorials you can find, from heating up with blowtorch to using candles. In this example, I am using Flexinol 0.001 LT from robotshop (http://www.robotshop.com/en/dynalloy-flexinol-010-lt-actuator-wire.html). Perhaps it differs on which […]

Time: April 27,28 2017 10:00- 17:00 as a part of Weissensee Art Academy Berlin, Soft Interactive Technology 2 course Location: eLab, Weissensee Art Academy Berlin In this 2 days workshop, we will explore methods to move textiles with electricity using SMA (Shape Memory Alloy) and electromagnetism. On the first day, we will explore materials, techniques, […]

Flickr set >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157682852303805 Video: Front and back: Capacitive Sensing Cap sense shapes: Circular sliders: Linear sliders: Code /* Visualizes the movement of a finger over a series of capacitive sensors. >> http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=6607 Based on the CVDSense Library Demo Sketch by Admar Schoonen 2016. >> https://github.com/admarschoonen/CVDSensor IMPORTANT: Needs a minimum of 2 capacitive sensors. When […]

24 – 28th July 2017, at Les Moulins de Paillard in Poncé-sur-le-Loir, France APPLICATION CLOSED! More info >> http://etextile-summercamp.org/2017/summerof/summerschool/

Monday 24 April 2017, 12:30 – 15:20 at the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA. This workshop will only be open to students. Pins are sharp and familiar, abundant and conductive. Used in textiles as tools for prototyping, to make quick connections between materials. Lets […]

Made in the Hybrid Craft Lab of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, in an attempt to produce a wearable display.

Tuesday March 14th & Tuesday March 21st 2016, 18:00 – 20:00 in the Hybrid Craft Lab at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. A short hands-on activity, following a presentation about my work. We will start by going outside to collect materials from around campus. Leaves,needles, twigs, pine cones, stones, straws, berries, cans, coins… anything […]

Made in the Hybrid Craft Lab of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, for the Jewish carnival celebration Purim, this mask is made from spoons and sticks intended for stirring sugar and milk into coffee.

Sparkfun is finally retailing a selection of 3 different Eeontex fabrics (made by Eeonyx) in small quantities.

20-24 February 2017, taught by David Gauthier and Hannah Perner-Wilson at the Copenhagen Institute for Interaction Design in Copenhagen, Denmark

13-17th December 2016 hosted jointly by Interface Cultures and Fashion and Technology departments at the Art University Linz, Austria * * * This workshop is only open to university students * * * Fashionable Technology I Textiles are one of the oldest forms of technology, we’ve been wrapping our bodies in material for 100,000 years. […]

December 2,3,9,10,2016 10:00- 17:00 elab Weissensee Art Academy Berlin. In a morning, I push a button to start the electric kettle to make a cup of tea, turn on the radio by sliding the on/off switch and turn the knob to tune into the radio station I want to listen to. I open my laptop, […]

This is a demonstration setup that allows you to plug a variety of resistive textile sensors into a Teensy and either read the sensor values as Serial communication, or midi commands. The textile sensors are designed with their leads ending in two 9mm metal snap fasteners – 1 male, 1 female. This snap connection connects […]

28 & 29th November 2016 as part of the Madtech course at the Frank Mohr Institute in Groningen, The Netherlands This workshop is only open to Madtech students. An Experimental Research Lab In this two-day workshop we will explore paper’s ability to move and be manipulated. Using a range of conductive materials to invent and […]

September 27-28th, 10:00- 17:00 Design Research Lab, UDK Berlin Germany. Workshop subscription limited to ArcInTex PhD students. When creating e-Textile sensors, we tend to consider its electrical property and function, but how about its aesthetic language? Especially when worn on bodies, e-Textiles becomes a part of one’s fashion statement. Can we imagine a chic bend […]

September 27/28th 2016, 17-21:00 at Anselma in Ljubljana/Slovenia This workshop will take place at the end of my one-month residency at Ljudmila in September 2016. The idea for PIFpouch was inspired by a week of hacking in the Slovenian Alps during pif_camp 2016. “PIF” comes from the Slovenian “piflar” which means “nerd” or “hacker”. Workshop […]

Inspired by Pauline, Paul and Jussi‘s foam switch that they submitted to the 2016 E-Textile Swatch Exchange, I made a quick try at constructing a pressure sensor matrix with the rows and columns sewn directly into a piece of anti-static/piezoresistive/ESD foam. It works!

At the tips of your fingers, this contact switch is closed by touching the tips your thumb and index finger together. conductive fabric pads are fused underneath stretch fabric.

A/D/A Festival Hamburg, on Friday, August 26th – Saturday, August 27th. „The goal of building a smart city is to improve quality of life by using technology to improve the efficiency of services and meet residents’ needs“ (from wikipedia) by silently monitoring the city through embedded sensors. In this two-day workshop, us, the citizens, we […]

During PIFcamp 2016 Cedric Honnet got the analog version of the pin stroke sensing working!

This experiment in making a two chamber battery from salty agar, water, microbes and a conductive fabric electrode was made during Interspecifics‘s Microbial Fuel-Cell workshop at PIFcamp 2016.

This first ohmGlove prototype is an attempt to make a wearable version of the ohmHook. It allows the wearer to pinch a material between their fingers to listen to it’s electrical resistance as well as how it behaves under pressure. A pull-up resistor of the same material is sandwiched between little finger and palm. The […]

All-in-one demo of a fabric tilt sensor. This sensor demo is a simple circuit made up of a 3V coin-cell battery (inside a conductive fabric battery pouch), 6 red LEDs and a 6-way tilt sensitive switch. The tilt switch is made up of a common GND (negative power supply from battery) which is connected to […]

The ohmHook is crochet hook mounted on a circuitboard which measures the electrical resistance between the crochet hook and a crocodile clip connected to the opposite end of the tool handle. The resistance is displayed as the 10 bit reading of the microcontroller’s analog-to-digital converter.

This sensor is inspired by the “design” of fish scales and bird feathers: how single elements are repeated, and how it allows the main body to bend smoothly by sliding over the others. The scale in this sensor is made with Eeonyx non-woven conductive textile. The carbon is infused on non woven textile in order […]