Upcoming Events!
E-textile Explorations: Projects and Experiments
Reserve a spot here
Part of the 2025 CETI Enchanted Technology Summer
Saturday September 6, 2025 1 pm — 4:30pm
CETI Lab at PSU. FMH 218
Led by Helen Leigh and Lara Grant
Join us for another session of e-textile explorations. We will get hands-on with the latest e-textile tools and materials, and share techniques, projects and ideas. We will also provide lunch and tasty treats from the Portland Farmers Market.
As well as sharing some of our own projects and materials, we’ll be on hand to help with your projects. If you have something you’re working on, from sketch to prototype to project to product, please don’t hesitate to bring it along.
These e-textile exploration sessions are a great opportunity to meet other people in the region who are working in the e-textile space. As well as Helen and Lara, Darcy Neal and Drew Runner will be there to share their projects and techniques, including textile MIDI controllers and integrating 3D printing into your fabrics.
There will be sewing machines for use and free time for attendees to work on their project, explore, and experiment. Learn what the CETI lab has to offer. If needed, there will be beginner friendly materials and resources available to get you started.
From 1pm to 1.30pm we will provide a delicious lunch, alongside some tasty seasonal treats from Saturday’s PSU Portland Farmers Market. If you’re coming along and you have any dietary requirements please let us know in advance and we will make sure you have something delicious to eat.
Who is this for? Anyone making or using e-textiles in their work, or anyone who wants to learn how to add a new skill into their existing textile or technology practices. If you already know how to sew, knit, felt, craft or embroider but don’t know how to make a circuit, come along! If you already know how to solder, code, breadboard or make PCBs but don’t know how to thread a needle, come along!
Please note that you don’t have to stay for the whole session: drop in to explore materials and learn what the CETI lab has to offer, or stay for the whole session to meet future collaborators and work on your project.
Projects you’ll be able to see include:
- fabric MIDI controller
- purring plush tentacle
- 3D printed dragon scales on fabric
- leather glove that controls Ableton with gesture
- knitted analogue synth
Knowledge we can share includes:
- making regular through hole components sewable
- using a flex PCB breakout board to add a chip to fabric
- prototyping flex PCBs using copper tape and a desktop CNC
- designing wearables for repeated use
- adding 3D printing to textiles
Conductive materials you’ll be able to use include:
- Madeira’s HC10 thread (usable in sewing and embroidery machines)
- Karl Grimm thread (metal thread from Germany, stunning for hand embroidery)
- woven fabrics and knitted stretch fabrics
- sewable pressure sensor fabric
- adhesive conductive fabric that can be cut in a desktop CNC (Cricut, Brother Silhouette, etc)
About your hosts
Helen Leigh is a hardware hacker and author from Cymru (Wales), via London and Berlin. Leigh makes experimental musical instruments using textiles, metal, electronics and code. Leigh’s book The Crafty Kid’s Guide to DIY Electronics was published by McGraw Hill. She has written about hacking and making for publications all over the world, including a regular hardware column for Make:Magazine. She is currently based in Portland, Oregon, USA, where she works for Crowd Supply.
Lara Grant is a designer, educator, and fabricator of interactive works that have often included electronic textiles. She holds a BA in fashion design and an MPS from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) focused in physical computing and wearable and soft electronics. Lara is one of the founders and organisers of Electronic Textile Camp. She is based in Portland, Oregon.
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