Wednesday 1 April 2015

Tiree Tech Wave 9

October will be the tenth tech wave!  Impressive.

So, what happened at this one?

Well, it was a relatively small gathering, about 14 or so and fairly quiet too, but definitely not lacking in the usual silliness!  Just yesterday we were marketing sanity EBay style and then corporate style and more.

Usually a tech wave runs from Thursday afternoon to Monday evening, with folk either flying or ferrying home on the Tuesday.  This time that went a tad awry.  First the weather was so bad that the ferry delayed and delayed and most of the folk didn't arrive until gone 7 Thursday evening.

So we started properly on Friday.

I spent most of Friday working on this strange bowling pin like thing:
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After an hour and a bit it turned into a baby penguin:
 photo Penguin_zpsxij2icly.jpg

Made Gromitty very happy.  Other than that I sort of circulated and people-watched.

Saturday was felting workshop day.  Lovefibre has been running these once a month and this time it coincided with the tech wave.  Five eager souls came to play with fibre, soap and water along with two islanders.

Lovefibre did a great job teaching them all and they all had a sample of wet felt that they had done in a little over an hour.
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As the wavers finished their wet felt they came to me to try needle felt.  I handed everyone a wad of "Tiree lawnmower" fleece and a needle and told them the two rules:
1. Don't stab yourself too often
2. Enjoy and be creative

I worked on a new armature:
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 photo CanYaGuess_zpsfamntsyi.jpg

It got this far before I heard an idea and had to run with it.
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Some of the items needle felted on Saturday included a conductive ball and a rather fabulous mustache.

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The tech wave folks were trying to incorporate tech into fabric.  What a fab idea!  One suggested the idea of a bug or butterfly head or similar that would light up when it was placed on an apron or similar.  I was suddenly hooked.  I spent the rest of that day making a ladybird with LED eyes and two needle felted conductive fibre pads on its underside.  That evening I borrowed the tech wave Lilypad kit and made a leaf for it to sit on.

It ended up a tad demonic.
 photo DemonLadyBird_zpszn4nvmol.jpg

The issue with this little bug is that it only works one way.  LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) light up one way and stop nearly all current the other.  So, for someone who maybe has a bit of a memory issue it could be frustrating, especially as leaves don't have fronts and backs.

Sunday was a quiet day, delicious carvery from Cobbled Cow and thoughts lazily floating around.  I went to work on a flower to hold the battery holder.  The flower was rather likened to those that eat things, oh well, it goes well with demonic ladybird!
 photo FlowerAndBug_zpsoioqquuk.jpg

Monday was the last day (or so we thought) so I worked away to make a caterpillar that lit up no matter which way it faced.  I learned some things doing this.  Red and yellow LEDs are far less demanding than green and blue and a single 3V cell can only manage to get three LEDs going at once if they are red and/or yellow, but not blue or green.  This is partly due to the relatively huge resistances found in conductive fibre and thread vs. wire and solder.  Wiring up the caterpillar took as long as making it!

 photo CaterpillarAndBug_zpsi1swtgfl.jpg

I still had time after that so I added some pink LEDs to the flower for the final demonic look.

 photo DemonicFlash_zpsnfirbykg.jpg

 photo DemonicGlow_zpsn4ei3ub0.jpg

Lots of jokes were made about having it in your bedroom and then finding the bug on your duvet infront of you, still glowing and saying it was going to devour you.  Much silliness!

I seem to have inadvertantly set myself the challenge of getting a photo of bearded Steve looking lost while something else is happening.  This tech wave was no different.
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That evening we all dined at The Lodge, fab food!  Alan did his usual speech, at the speed that cameras cannot catch.
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We all enjoyed the evening and chatting.  Two Steves had the fish that came with a little dish of peas, silliness took over and they did "pea shots" akin to tequila shots, including the lemon and salt.  Highly entertaining.

By Monday evening the ferry had been cancelled, 18ft swell combined with wind speed and direction meant it wouldn't be safe or able to dock.  Tech wave extended!  Fortunately everyone who needed to was able to extend their accommodation time so no couches were required.

Tuesday was a bit...off.  No one had expected the extension and so we had all raced to finish things on Monday.  The time was still passed and things were done.  I spent the time between browsing pinterest for needle felt ideas and finishing an embroidered item for my Dad's birthday.  Folk were either full of energy or looking a little tired.

Wednesday really was the last day.  The morning and early afternoon we all gathered again and did things.  Alan and Ed did a recital of "I'm a little teapot", I got their expressions at the end.

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I borrowed the elephant I made for Lovefibre and finished my baby elephant.
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Come 3pm the visitors went to do the "tourist" thing and we locals sat for a while just getting on with things.
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That was Tiree Tech Wave Nine.  I'm going to have to start adding tags to my posts, that way I can find the previous TTW ones without hunting through three years of blogging.  Hope you enjoyed and I hope the ferry sails today!

TTFN
 photo Toodles_zpseojrvma5.jpg

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