Day 15 — Add a Little Sparkle to Your Next Craft Project with Electronics!
In the last 15 years, the world of electronics available to hobbyists and crafters has grown exponentially. Once something done only by nerdy types interested in making their own radios, working with electronics is now done by people of all ages and programming skill levels, and can be applied to all sorts of crafty genres. You don’t even need to be able to solder! LEDs particularly have gotten much cheaper, have more variety, and have many resources for project ideas and implementation.
I started out in the world of blinkies by adding a strip of LEDs to my bike for safety (and fun) 7 years ago, and since then I’ve enjoyed adding a variety of lighting to costumes and using LEDs and sensors to build fun and interactive art with my friends. I think it’s really rewarding and fun to be able to hold something in my hands that I’ve made, and I love to work in the intersection of technology and art.
I thought it would be fun to introduce some different ways you can incorporate a little electronic sparkle into your next craft project — no serious tech skills needed. For each type below I’ve included my usage and pros and cons.
EL wire, tape, and panels
EL stands for electroluminescent — these wires, tapes, and panels are made using phosphorus which lights up due to alternating current passing through it. You can easily sew or attach EL wires around the edge of any project to give them a cool look. The wires, tapes, and panels can also be cut to shape! There are quite a few colors you can choose from, and various power inverters exist that offer different blink pattern options and sound reactivity.
- Pros: easy to use, can be cut to shape, looks very cool in very low light.
- Cons: not very bright. inverter is a bit large and can make a high-pitched whine noise.
- Best usage: temporary applications — costuming that won’t be used in a quiet room, outdoor signs.
LED stickers and copper tape
Companies like Chibitronics offer LED stickers that can be used to decorate papercraft projects like light-up cards or drawings/paintings — you design simple circuits using copper tape and apply the stickers, and power it using a coin cell battery. They offer different colors and also blinking style LEDs. The company also has a large educational focus with additional products more programming-focused, so it’s a good medium to learn more about electronics.
- Pros: very flat so works well with paper-based projects, easy to design/lay out circuits. good introduction to understanding basic circuits.
- Cons: not able to reuse components, not suitable for projects that will be moving/flexing.
- Best Usage: paper based projects like cards, tags, mixed media art for display.
LED sequins
LED sequins are small LEDs pre-mounted on a tiny circuit board — all you need to do is hook up power to one side and a ground to the other, and you’re ready to go! These are very versatile and come in a few different colors. If you like to program or are looking for a simple first programming project you can also hook these up to a small Arduino-type microcontroller to control brightness level and blink them. They can also be powered solely by a small coin cell battery.
- Pros: Easy to hook up — can use sewable steel thread to connect to clothing or other costume parts (can also solder to wire for the best connection).
- Cons: Only one color option per sequin, requires circuit board/programming if you want lighting patterns.
- Best Usage: versatile applications but only where simple lighting is required. Great for flair for costuming.
Are you interested in doing something that requires a little (not too much!) programming?
Individually Addressable Full Color LEDs
You can easily integrate strips or individual full color LEDs easily into your cool costume or room decoration project! The strips will require soldering but you can still use sewing with steel thread for individual LEDs. You can also find tiny microcontrollers that are easy to incorporate into your projects — they are so small you can tuck them away in a little pocket — but are powerful enough to create a variety of effects. You don’t necessarily need a huge board to make something cool. And if you’re worried about having to do a lot of complicated coding or learning how to write code for Arduino, don’t be. You can find a lot of example code and tutorials shared freely on the internet, so you don’t have to learn from scratch. You can copy/paste your way to getting a working project and then make little tweaks/build off the existing code to make it your own.
- Pros: full range of RGB color spectrum available, any blinky pattern you can imagine.
- Cons: requires more complicated setup, programming knowledge.
- Best Usage: when the lighting will be the feature of the art/costuming and not just an accessory.
The next steps…
If you’re interested in adding interactivity, you can also incorporate sensors to make your projects interactive and responsive to the environment around them. Sensors allow your projects to respond to touch, light, sound — there are even heart rate sensors easily available with example project kits. There are also many different unique and wonderful LED components you can buy besides just strips or individual LEDs — rings of various sizes, displays, and flexible panels are all available. Basically anything you can imagine you can now create using off-the-shelf components.
There are some amazing projects out there with full tutorials to ease you into the super fun world of LEDs + sensors that including detailed instructions, pre-written code, and full supply lists.. for example, check out this cool shoe that lights up with your foot pressure:
My suggestion for how to get started:
Pick something easy for your first project — whether that means adding a couple little lights to a card you send to a friend or adding a small strip of LEDs to backlight an area of your room. Starting small will give you the familiarity of working with electronic components and the knowledge and confidence to expand to more complicated projects! Also, it’ll keep your first project cheap since you won’t have to buy a lot of tools/supplies. Have fun, and good luck!
Projects idea sites that use LEDs:
- Adafruit project ideas
- Let’s put LEDs in things! (Adafruit)
- Instructables
- Chibitronics (Instagram)
Where to find components:
This is not a comprehensive list, but here are a few of the more major retailers/sites to get you started..
USA:
Japan:
- Switch Science
- Amazon
- Akiba LED (their physical shop in Akihabara is good for browsing)
This article is part of the HENNGE Advent Calendar 2019. An Advent calendar is a special calendar used for counting down the days till Christmas. HENNGE Advent Calendar 2019 presents one article by one HENNGE member per day for 25 days until Christmas, 2019
