Electroluminescent wire (often abbreviated to EL wire) is a thin copper wire coated in a phosphor which glows when an alternating current is applied to it. wikipedia
Certainly the quality of EL wire is unlike other light sources like LED ( a series of points) – it produces a smooth unbroken line of visible light. Its thin diameter makes it flexible and ideal for use in a variety of applications such as clothing or costumes – which makes it very interesting for me to use it in my weaving practice.
Loop.pH is a London based art and design studio intervening at an urban scale to re-imagine life in the city. Rachel Wingfield set up loop.pH to develop reactive surfaces for the interior and has worked on architectural and fashion commissions, product design and public installations. Rachel Wingfield was as well a speaker at the Enmeshed: Architecture and Textiles Conference in Stockholm last year.
They experiment in many fields of electroluminescence materials.
The work of Loop.ph inspires me a lot, since they put their work in the context of urban spaces and their interaction. Their work is settled in between research, art and design practice, creating works that will define our future way of living – not only seen fro the use of new materials and techniques, morelikely from the side of a sustainable point of view. (read further MetabolicCity.
From a textile design point of view, the EL-wire poses a wider understanding of the use of light and textiles. Several esthetical functions can be of interest when working with the EL-wire: light as a design element (interior patterns), light as a communicative element (warning systems), light as a lighting element (light object), … . Aspects that I am aware of when making testweavings with the EL-wire on my table loom.
January has been busy with the production of works. I am renting the weaving workshop at the Art School in Bergen to produce some works, that are in combination with el-wire (electrolumiscent). They wire is glowing nicely blue.
My studio with workshop for electronic textiles is now operative. I am equipped with all tools, materials, electronic hard and software, fibers and yarns necessary to create interactive environments, objects and Installations. Weaving chair and spinning wheel help me to combine optic fiber, el wire / light cable, conductive yarns, different kinds of fibers (natural, synthetic, animal, metal ) into electronic textiles, that can carry light and sound. Follow my work via blog, or pay a visit when you are around! Welcome!
What I love about spinning is, that you can put -almost- whatever – you – want – to – have – in it , as long as it fits through the orifice. Here I started something I want to continue. My Lost and Found Mood series. Stuff I take with me from places I visit. Places that later became part in my Installations and in my creative art practice. It is a nice way to capture a mood. Not only with materials, it is a collection of senses. Here I used stuff I found at the baltic see, northsea and around the Fjords. I mixed it with japanese paper garn, horsehair, transparent synthetic filament, different wires of fishing net … .
A hand-spun yarn, where I used/recycled old fabrics and teared them into thin stripes that I later could wrap around a pre-spun yarn. As well I used old textile with silk screen printings on, yarn, etc. Its very fun to produce that type of yarn, you recycle your fabrics, it is like a clean up. Maybe I should call it clean up yarn.
Sneak preview of my first conductive yarn spinning results. I tried different technics, and different approaches to make them conductive. Some have a thin metal thread core (hidden), some have the metal thread/wire wrapped around the core (very loose coil spinning), some have metal splitters from stuff I found at the scrapyard (special stainless steal scrap yards…), some are a combination of it all. Now I am eager to produce conductive handspunn yarn, with the very thin metal wire I recently received samples for and in thinner quality.
Electric Blue, Material: metal wire core, stainless steal splitters, wool in different color, mohair, turquoise polyester yarnsplitter
Electric Fairy tale, Material: Metal wire core, Metal wire wrapping, baby mohair, wool, turquoise yarnsplitter
Electric Glitter, Material: stainless steal splitter, yarn splitter, mohair, wool / shetland tops / leicester tops / , flax
Electric Jazz, Material: metal wire core, metal wire wrapping, wool / shetland tops, Bluefaced leicester tops
Picture of el-wire. It ll glow blue, according to the amount of voltage. I will make some experiments with this yarn, I want to bring light into weaving. I ordered it at PlugandWear, an internet shop for materials and tools for el-textile. I met Riccardo owner of it at the Worklab with Diffus in Oslo, at Atelier Nord.
These are the material samples of a metal wire company based in Switzerland. They can color these wires following the Pantone color scheme, so the sky is the limit … . Get in contact with me if you want to know more. I want to use the blue metal wire for my next project, following the theme of the glacier, like the weaving The Glacier.
Material: copper 0,071mm, cu/ag20 0,063mm
Last week I received my order of paper yarn. It is beautiful! I ordered unbleached and white yarn in different qualities. I am so happy about the quality of the very thin yarn, it was a problem for me to locate a supplier for this kind.
Material: paper yarn, 0,34mm, 0,6mm, 0,2mm, 0,94mm
