Tech Troubles and the Moodiest of Boards

It's week two and the problems are already piling up.

Due to the technical side of my collection, I've had to do a lot of additional research on top of designing and constructing my collection. While I have the basic skills when it comes to wiring and programming basic actions, the things I want to accomplish require far more advanced knowledge and a whole list of unknown jargon. Thankfully, my jewellery professor in my minor has quite a bit of knowledge on the subject and was more than willing to help me out. Still, I have a long way to go.

The first step was buckling down and reading up on a lot of the terminology used when working with electronics and most things technical. As it turned out, researching the technical side proved to pose a ton of challenge and problems when it came down to executing the garments. I kinda like the challenge though, it makes my brain buzz and the satisfaction when I come up with a solution that acctually works is pretty dope.

The biggest problem I'm running into it how to apply an element that tends to be bulky and obtrusive to a garment where uncomfortable and bulky things are usually a turn-off. Additionally, I have to find a way to make the shapes I want and make sure that they can all be properly powered.

I'll be using EL (Electroluminescent) lights for my collection. They provide a solid line of light, much like neon lights but without the glass and dangerous gasses. I ordered 15 feet of a blue EL wire and when I received it I popped in the batteries, hit the 'ON' switch and...

Nothing.

After a few choice words, I brought it to one of my professors hoping that it was just a personal user error. Thankfully, my professor and I discovered that the batteries I had put in had merely gone bad. Popped in a fresh pair and voila! It worked!

It's a long-standing tradition in the fashion program that every year the seniors put visuals for their collection up on the boards around the sewing lab. Since Freshman year we've been seeing seniors from every year putting their stuff up on the boards, so it was kind of exciting to see my stuff going up.

Thanks for reading and remember to keep checking back for new updates every week.

Salut!