Portfolio¶

PROJECT: STEAM YOUR TEXTILE¶

I developed a serie of workshops to build a bridge between children/youngsters, textile and technology.

My project received the name 'STEAM YOUR TEXTILE' because textile is the medium that is used in those workshops where the aim is to involve Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) in them.

Steam workshops for children, girls and boys, are getting very popular but few are those where textile and fabrics are used as the material to work around.

PURPOSE¶

The objectives of those workshops are:

-to learn children different techniques to transform fibers and textile and so to elevate their awareness/respect for DIY and the ' Makersworld'

-to raise boys respect for textile/craft activities and girls involvement in Steam education

-to make them aware of the sustainability issues related to textile

-to empower children with hands-on learning

-to transmit passion for DIY and to create a local community of 'little' Makers on the long term

-to improve social cohesion

-to be beneficial for visual thinkers

IMPLEMENTATION¶

The way those workshops will be put in place will be done in different stages:

1.In a first stage, mobile and on the spot with modular and recycled furniture and storage boxes (obtained by participating in the Re-make Challenge of Fablabs Brussels)

Despite of having a fixed infrastructure to give the STEAM workshops, I first will give them on location (events, schools,...). Therefore I'm putting in place an infrastructure that can be easiliy moved by a little van.

2.I hope that, in the near future, there will be a location available in the centre of my village so that such kind of workshops can be given on a regular base. If this is the case, I then want to combine it with the mobile STEAM workshops.

RELEVANCE¶

For me, the relevance of this project, is that it is very valuable of letting children realise their ideas/dreams by making beautiful things with their hands, and this by using technical skills. Skills for which their is often not enough time to teach them at school. And if this is teached at school, it stays often very basic and superficial.

I am really convinced a lot of children are capable to make complex technical things and are eager to learn those skills to canalize their creativity and to create their own 3D-world.

Where I live (a small village 30 km outside Brussels, on the border of the Walloon and Flemish region) there are not such possibilities for children to do it on a frequently base, especially not for children with low financial ressources. Altough there is now a little Makers community for adults growing.

So I would like to contribute by setting up a Makers Space for children.

WORKSHOPS AND TUTORIALS¶

Until now I developed five workshops and for four of them also a colourful tutorial.

The tutorial is a little booklet with visual elements that are attractive for children. Materials that are used for this booklet are:

recycled white cotton
recycled felt for the cover of the booklet
elastic strap

The text of the tutorial and sensitory examples are sewed onto the white cotton.

The tutorial can be used as a poster to watch at while doing the workshop.

Tutorial 1. Fabricating biomaterials¶

This booklet I developed for the workshop Fabricating Biomaterials:

This is what the children discover when they unfold the booklet:

via GIPHY

Here you can see the unfolded tutorial on how to fabricate biomaterials:

And here you can find the PDF version on how to fabricate biomaterials.

Tutorial 2. Gelliplate printing on fabric with a self-made gelliplate¶

via GIPHY

This booklet I developed for the workshop 'Gelliplate printing on fabric with a self-made gelliplate':

On one side of the unfolded booklet you find the tutorial on making a gelliplate.

On the other side of the unfolded booklet you find the tutorial on gelliplate printing on fabric:

Here you can find the PDF tutorial on how to make a gelliplate.

And here is the PDF tutorial on how to print on fabric with a gelliplate.

Tutorial 3. Printing with Lego Dots stamps on textile¶

This booklet I developed for the workshop 'Printing on textile with stamps made of Lego Dots':

When the booklet is unfolded you can find the tutorial on how to print on textile with stamps made of Lego Dots:

Here you can find the PDF tutorial on how to print on fabric with Lego Dots.

Tutorial 4. Forms made from discarded fabrics¶

This booklet I developed for the workshop 'forms made from discarded fabrics'.

On one side of the unfolded booklet you find the tutorial on making self-made glue.

On the other side of the unfolded booklet you find the tutorial on how to make forms from discarded fabrics.

Here you can find the PDF tutorial on how to fabricate your own glue.

And here is the PDF tutorial on how make forms from discarded fabrics.

Tutorial 5. Sewing techniques¶

The tutorial I developed for sewing techniques is for making a simple soft toy, because kids love to make their own cuddle toy and so it is very accessible for them.

Here you can find the PDF tutorial on how to sew a soft toy.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS¶

Investing in FABLAB MATERIAL THAT CAN BE MOVED EASELY to events (vinyl cutter, portable lasercutter and 3D printer)

Developping more WORKSHOPS and more DIGITAL. These are some of the ideas I want to develop:

Textile pleating technique with a pleating mould and creating something out of it. Extension possible for digtal fabrication: learning to work with the lasercutter to make the pleating mold.
Making patches with the dry-felting technique using molds. Extension possible for digital fabrication: making molds with CNC or lasercutter
Making stamps for printing on fabric (objects, potatoes). Extension possible for digital fabrication: making stamps with CNC or lasercutter
Developing E-textiles (patches, bracelet, necklace)
Making Electro Colour Prints: combination of natural dye and e-textile
Making music with textile with the Makey-makey.
Developing workshops for toddlers (after-school activities)
Developing a serie of workshops about biomimetics and textile for kids

PARTNERSHIPS with other organisations who offer STEAM workshops (e.g. Texterra, Wetenschap en Techniek, Brightlab) to train my educational skills and to propose them to develop STEAM workshops with textile techniques

RAISE AWARENESS about textile environmental issues and different kind of educational forms

TRAIN THE TRAINER + develop learning outcomes