Fashioning Technology: A DIY Intro to Smart Crafting (Craft: Projects)

Ready to take your craft projects to the next level? With "smart" materials, unorthodox assembly techniques, and the right tools, you can create accessories, housewares, and toys that light up, make sounds, or do even more. Fashioning Technology is an introductory DIY book that brings technology and crafts together in a fun and unique way. You get jargon-free primers and lots of how-to projects that will have you making — and even wearing — functional works of art.

Written for a broad audience, this book demonstrates how to blend sewing and assembly techniques with traditional electronics to assemble simple circuits using conductive thread, solder joints for snaps, and switches for buttons. With the sewing machine as a viable substitute for the soldering iron, you can craft a new generation of objects that are interactive, quirky, and fashion-conscious.

Author Syuzi Pakhchyan, a seasoned artist, roboticist, and teacher, explains how to use smart materials such as thermo- and photochromatic inks that change color by touch or sunlight, magnetic and conductive paints, polymorph plastic, fiber optics, and more.

In Fashioning Technology, you'll find:

• An invaluable reference section that breaks down the materials, components, and tools with clear, concise explanations and photos
• A wide range of projects, including electronic accessories, interactive plush toys, and color-changing blinds, all using diverse crafting techniques
• Techniques for seasoned crafters interested in incorporating simple electronics into their own projects
• Methods for makers proficient in electronics who are looking for unconventional ways to create novel projects

Each project encourages you to personalize and customize using your own designs, materials, and craft skills. Fashioning Technology translates traditional electronics into fun, fashionable interactive projects for the geek, fashionista, and the craft aficionado alike. Now you really can be the flashiest dresser in town.

Syuzi Pakhchyan is an Art Director, robotics instructor, writer, blogger and a seasoned tinkerer working and residing in Los Angeles, CA. Her work explores the intersection of culture and technology through the research, investigation and design of technological systems and interactions for a range of cultural contexts.

Definitely not camera-shy, Syuzi has made two guest appearance on Craft Lab, the DIY Network's new, hip crafting DIY Television series. Her television debut aired on January 1, 2007 and will be followed by the another scheduled for the Fall of 2007. For the launch of Craft magazine, Syuzi designed and helped create an environmental installation at the 2006 Maker Faire. At the Makers Faire, her work was featured as a "Special Exhibition" where she taught workshops on how to create the Wearable Light Bracelet and sew electronics.

Syuzi's projects have been published in numerous publications and books, including Shojo-Beat, a manga publication, Craft magazine, and in the Crafter Culture Handbook authored by Amy Spencer.

On weekends, she teaches a robotics class to children between the ages of 9-14 at Art Center College of Design. She also occasionally holds workshops in Los Angeles on crafting electronics. Monthly, she writes articles for Shojo-Beat, covering topics that range from fashion, technology and the latest must-have gadgets. And nightly, she researches and blogs about interactive, tech toys on her blog we-love-technology.com. She received her BFA from UC Berkeley in Literature and her MFA in Media Design from the Art Center College of Design. Her MFA thesis titled "SparkLab" was exhibited at Eyebeam, an Art and Technology gallery in New York, as wellas the Fashion Future Event in Pisa, 2006 Maker Faire and 2006 Emerging Technologies Conference. SparkLab is a novel platform that creates a space for the cultural production of technologically crafted artefacts.

Her designs explore and encourage ludic activities that celebrate the quirky and speculative and reflect personal experiences and cultural narratives. Syuzi has the unique ability to make the complex simple, translate learning into entertainment, and use technology as a tool to inspire creativity.