Adding Some Dark Yin Yang to my Jewelry

I'm about to put some serious yin yang into a jewelry project. For years, I've put lights into jewelry, now it's time to put some darkness into the mix. Say what... ???

Well, not darkness exactly. But I can now block light on command thanks to new "light valves" from Adafruit. These light valves are thin glass sheets that can be darkened on command with a standard Arduino... think LCD screen or welding helmet, except the whole sheet darkens.

Why would I want to darken something, especially jewelry? I've put bright colorful LEDs onto every hat, scarf, shoe and bracelet I could find to make them sparkly. Why would I suddenly want to block light? It took me a while to find a problem for this solution, but I think I've found an interesting use case. What if you are working with objects that already have a beautiful quality of light?

Adding a dark background (upper half) completely changes to look of this piece of fused glass. The glass is so beautiful on its own that it doesn't need and LEDs in it. But changing how much light gets through the glass can affect the look of the entire piece. Imagine the background fluttering or pulsing between dark and light.  

A maker-friend creates lovely fused glass jewelry. The glass does amazing, wonderful things with light. It bends it and scatters it and refracts it. I've put lights behind these pieces of glass to great effect. But some of the pieces, especially the clear or nearly transparent pieces didn't work as well as I had hoped.

Translucent or heavily tinted glass diffuses the LEDs and creates a wonderful glow. But the nearly transparent glass always looked like I had just stuck some LEDs behind it, there was no magic or artistry. They looked cheap and tacky, a sad disservice to the beautiful glass work.

And the transparent glass really changes depending on the light that hits it, Some pieces look dark and nearly opaque in dim light, then turn crystalline and bright in sunlight. On a light background they look one way, on a dark background they look completely different.

What if I cold control the background, change it from dark to light, flicker it, fade it and pulse it? Well now I have a way to do that thanks to these new "light valves" from Adafruit. It's not as dramatic as an LED, but that subtlety is precisely the point. I've been developing ways to tone down LEDs for a long time, trying to make something a little less Vegas and more LBD evening gown-ish. Maybe the solution is to control the lighting effects from the opposite end of the scale instead. 

I just started this experiment, but I like some of the effects I'm getting so I'll post some of my successes and failures as I go akong (plus more about the light valves).

Stay tuned for updates.

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A Few Lines about Linemen for Christmas

Twas the morning of Christmas, snuggled deep in my warm westernized house, the fans and the heaters drowning out any mouse. Four o'clock in the morning, the hour barely wee, when I woke up early and not even to pee. Something was wrong, but I didn't know what. My nose was cold and my feet they weren't hot. I fell out of bed, being careful not to slip, to the nearest wall I did stumble, to the switch I always flip.

What to my wondering eye did appear, nothing, nothing at all ...no light was emitted, the darkness did not flatten, the room stayed too silent and my mood it did sadden, Now I knew for sure there was something the matter, but no worries, for from far down the road there arose a real clatter. With big bright lights and many a beep beep beep, three trucks came a calling. When I looked out the window the snow it was falling. Outside at night, in coats that should've been thicker, several brave souls were already raising a tall steel cherry picker.

Santa's sleigh doesn't always look like we think it should. I got a humbling reminder of how much I have to be thankful for early this Christmas morning

Each morning caffeine I go seeking, so five minutes in and I was already freaking. While I a soft maker was missing his Peets, hardy folks outside worked their way down a cold winter street. Fifteen minutes later my mind was adrift, worrying about my day's plans, not the poor humans high up in their lift.

I couldn't PM and I couldn't send greetings, and if this went on I might not be eating. I stepped outside the better to see, not so much to help, but more like a big silent plea. With temps less than twenty and gusts up to fiddy, I watched as they tested each transformer in a safe slow motion jiffy. Each time I went outside I stayed a few seconds, and quickly got so cold I began to consider them legends.

As the hours stretched from two into three, the power came back on and the spoiled man inside was once again free. I went back indoors as they drove out of sight, knowing full well that I can code up a storm but I can't bring the light. As I gave out this year's precious handcrafted gifts, made with a big AC Dremel and my hands all a tremble, I remembered that all my nifty skills could fit in a thimble. When I hit a tough problem I too often sigh, while those folks on the line fix real problems so that people don't die

I think my whole block, but especially me, hope all in bright yellow got to spend time with their loving families. I'm about out of time and I'm losing the rhyme, but if you see such a group cold later today, wearing really thick mittens with their cheeks all frost bitten, please oh please just remember to say... THANK YOU !!!.

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New Side Light NeoPixels make Complex Effects Easier

Adafruit just released a new "Side Light" style of NeoPixels with the LEDs perpendicular to the ribbon instead of parallel. This might seem like a simple thing to some folks. But for anyone who has tried to illuminate a circular or tubular object with a wash or raking style of light, this is amazing stuff.

Oh so simple, but so very helpful. Adafruit now has a 90 degree side light version of their Neopixels.

Until now, the LED strips always projected light away from the curved surface. The light went toward the viewer, not along the surface of the curve. So for the most part, we were limited to having bright strips of light shining at the viewer but not on the object. Now, it's going to be so much simpler to gently illuminate the surface of an object without blinding the viewer or requiring additional, often complicated reflectors to disperse the light.

We can finally throw a wash along a curved surface (LEDs at bottom) instead of projecting all the light out into space (top). 

In fact, these new strips negate years of my work (slight exaggeration) where I created reflectors and deflectors to control the light and bend it to go opposite the curve of the LED ribbon. And I'm not the only one, lots of makers have come up with their own solutions. After all, that's what makers do - we create solutions and have a lot of fun doing it. But I think we all knew there was a better way, we just never got around to creating it.

With cosplay and illuminated, glowing fashion becoming trendy and popular it was only a matter of time before someone came out with a manufactured solution. Adafruit popularized the addressable LED and made it simple enough to use that regular people could create with it. They named it NeoPixel and the world was never the same

Luckily for us, Adafruit is now working closely with Erin St Blaine, a professional costumer and performer. According to Lady Ada, the new Side Light style was initiated by St Blaine. While we amateurs tinkered and fussed to overcome the limitations of the basic NeoPixels, St Blaine spoke up for us and let the company know that she and other pros needed a simpler pre-made solution. And Adafruit responded. We amateurs also reap the benefits, yay us.

Right now, there are only a few configurations available in the side lit style, but if there is a good response I'm guessing Adafruit will expand the line. So come on folks, grab yourself a few of these strips and make something cool so we all get more options to choose from.

My project list for these new lights include:

• Hat with the with a side-lit crown taper
• Hat with a down light brim
• Bracelet that throws patterned light on the arm
• Skirt with a true down light
• Cropped sweater with a real down light

Did you notice that all of these projects involve the human body as the subject of illumination? Well that's because the human body is basically a series of vertical tubes, Until now. we could wrap lights around the body so that the illumination projected AWAY from the surface of the body - basically creating a brightly outlined stick figure. But it was very difficult to illuminate the surfaces of the body without a lot of tricky workarounds. The always lights pointed away simply because that's how they were made.

I tried to work with illuminated clothes a few times with very limited and mixed success. After a lot of work and tears and carefully sewing in reflectors, the clothes still looked like they belonged on a Vegas stage. I had grand visions of creating decorative reflectors that looked like attractive and intentional embellishments, but only succeeded in making awkward boxes that looked like they were tacked on to hide the LEDs.

I love creating diffusers and reflectors for NeoPixels. ten hours of measuring, designing, printing and installing later and you've got yourself a nice project. But hey, now you can do a lot of the same thing just by using the appropriate strip of NeoPixels.

I, like so many others, defaulted back to EL-wire for light-up fashion. It's a lot less complicated, but much more limited than LEDs.

That's why I decided to stick to jewelry where it was easier to hide reflectors and such.  So I'm excited to re-try some of these failed fashion projects.

Other people seem really excited about making light-up signs and displays. It will certainly make that easier too. I'm also eager to try out mixing the two configurations to create a wall wash of one color with a center strip of another color.

Conclusion:

This is a face-palm simple upgrade that just required a large enough community plus a dedicated creator to speak-up to a responsive company. Now we all have a fantastic new set of lighting tools to use. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with,

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New Line of Steampunk Jewelry and Accessories

I am trying to create a new feel for my line of Steampunk jewelry and accessories. Commercial Fashion has finally caught up with me and I need to up my game to come up with a new aesthetic - something that really catches the eye and stands out from the crowd - but doesn't frighten the average customer.

Anyone that has been involved with Steampunk for a while probably knows my pain. We scavenged parts and cleaned gears and old lace, then combined them into odd collections that were too new for anyone but the hard-core geeks to be seen wearing. We created an aesthetic and a standardized compositional vocabulary, then watched as it slowly caught on to the point that normal people would wear them.

Yes, there are plenty of pre-made craft store items in these pieces. But they also use old PCBs, computer memory as well as real gears and hardware from old machines. I didn't copy anyone or steal a design to meet market expectations. But a few still sold so I'm doubly happy to be experimenting again and still have people like them enough to wear them. It's a good start.

Eventually, you could find clean, pre-made gears and bits from a regular crafts store. And it was awesome, so much easier just to assemble without needing power tools and a soldering gun to take apart old machines. And the sales soared - suddenly everyone wanted a piece of Steampunk in their jewelry boxes.

Fast forward a few more years and you can now buy pre-assembled clusters of steamy goodness for cheaper than you can buy the individual parts. Now, we take apart these massive collections to re-assemble them into something unique enough that it can't be found on the Tim Hotz aisle of the craft store.

But somehow, that doesn't feel right to me. I'm buying a fake Chinese gear meant to evoke an antique European history for American mall shoppers who have never read Steampunk and know nothing of its history or the socio-political underpinnings of the genre. It's just something else to consume.

I'm not saying I will never use Vintaj or Holtz items again (they are just way too convenient) but I do want to start using something a little more authentic, something that was actually used for another purpose before being turned into jewelry.

This is a sample of what I came up with. It's representative of the items I slammed together at the last minute before a recent craft show. I just couldn't create anything that distinguished itself from any other vendor. All my stuff looked like everybody else's stuff and I was getting frustrated. So I forced the issue and made these, um, things - let's call them accessories.

They are different and I was happy about them being different. But I was also afraid, because I remember the early days and waiting for another experimental soul to wander by the booth and choose to be adventurous with their hard earned cash. new is good, really new is bad - at least for sales.

I did sell a few pieces, more than I expected to be honest. Others didn't sell and, at the moment, I've decided to push them even further into the unknown (think working electronic displays). I'll post more about the pieces that sold and how they were created. And I will also post any successes as I continue working on the unsold items.

And you know what, it felt pretty good to once again be selling something experimental and somewhat challenging. Meeting the market demand for an acceptable product certainly has its place (the wallet) but if I'm going to call myself a creator then I need to keep pushing the boundaries a little or risk withering away into the chasm of simple retail.  Of course a couple of sales makes it easier to think that way too.

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Fancy Filigree Rings a Definite NoGo

Made these delicate filigree finger rings thinking they would sell quickly. Customers always ask for rings, and with Game of Thrones and Steampunk being all the rage they should be very popular right? Wrong!!! Not a single one sold, and they barely got a look.

I like these rings, though. They are both subtle and expressive and they could work with a lot of different looks. They range from "finger-length" to a tiny single gear - something for every need. I wasn't totally sure if there was a local market for this style so I only made a few. I didn't expect to sell them all at one show, but I was a little shocked that not a single one sold... crickets

The rings ranged in size from a full finger=length to a tiny one with a single gear.

There are a lot of customers who want a simple, inexpensive gift that isn't a cliché trinket. I wanted to offer something inexpensive, and these rings are simple to make, so I could offer them at a very low price. They were (I thought) perfect for "small gift for a friend" add-ons, bundles and kids who have a limited budget. Just a little something to complete a package or the equivalent of an impulse buy. Apparently, I completely misjudged the market, but I'll give it another try or two before I abandon them. I might even add items to the line.







Before the show, people told me they liked the rings. But they were seeing them in isolation with nothing else competing for attention. The only ring I sold was a huge ring the size of a mini-donut, one I really expected to have a limited audience.

And every other sale was also huge and unusual - all my personal work. And I sold nothing that I made specifically to sell to the anticipated audience (commercial). Either I totally misjudged the audience for this show, or my personal work is beginning to find a market. Whichever it was, it got me to thinking...

There are several other possible reasons the small rings didn't sell. They could have been in the wrong place on the table. Maybe people didn't realize they were a third of the price of the other pieces. The rings might have been too delicate and small to compete visually with the other jewelry, all of which are bold and big and bright. It would be easy for people to overlook a few small items scattered amongst a huge wall of bold statement pieces

So I'm thinking I need to make enough of these small items to create an entire section for them. Maybe a separate case so that the entire collection is big enough to grab peoples attention and get them to shift the "scale" of their thinking.

I don't have any more shows scheduled until Spring, but the theme for the next show is Fantasy and Fairies,,, so these delicate rings, being fit for a princess, might be popular at that show. Fingers crossed and I'll keep you updated.

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Flexible OLED Display for Hobby Electronics

Finally, some affordable, flexible graphics displays are available for the hobby electronics market. There are now OLED and eINK style displays, and they are available from popular vendors that provide good libraries and tutorials. Let's take a look at a few of them.

Adafruit has two flexible eINK displays. They have a 2.13 (212x104) version and a 2.9" (296x128) version. Both are monochrome displays and both screens require a driver board. The screen can be bent to around 10mm. It should not be flexed repeatedly, and should not be flexed during refresh. Like most eInk displays, it takes a few seconds to redraw an image and the screen should only be refreshed once or twice a minute. Amazon also lists several flexible eInk & driver board combo kits (affiliate link).

Sparkfun has aa flexible and bendable OLED graphic display. It's a 1.81" grayscale display that can be bent to a 40mm radius. It is a 160x32 4-bit grayscale display and comes with an attached SPI driver board. It can flex during refresh, but it's probably not meant for constant bending and flexing. But the ability to wrap a changing picture around a curved surface opens up all kinds of possibilities. (Also sometimes available on Amazon (Affliate Link))

Image courtesy of Sparkfun.com under the Creative Commons CC BY 2.0

Imagine the possibilities:

• Hats with a changing logo, or showing "First Down" or displying the final score as you walk out of the stadium.
• Bracelets with a scrolling images or the names of your children or declarations of love.
• Shoes that show your current step count 
• Just being shaped and non-flat makes the display eye-catching. Put one up at your next crafts fair or over your POS impulse purchase area.
• Combine two or more for larger shapes.

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