A blinking fashion statement

Nice article @ Forbes with a lot of familiar projects and faces from the world of MAKE/CRAFT and the DIY space! A blinking fashion statement…

For all their talk of breaking glass ceilings, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have nothing on Leah Buechley.

In the several years since she first sewed a circuit board to a T-shirt, the 31-year-old University of Colorado computer-science researcher has done a lot to bring gender equality to the world of do-it-yourself, perhaps shattering a certain silicone-based ceiling once and for all.

“The tinkering group has always been a boys’ club,” says Buechley, referring to the DIY movement’s loosely formed faction of tech geeks, gear heads and circuit wizards who tinker with electronic gadgets in basements and garages across America. At the same time, she says, the arts-and-crafts contingent (think knitters, sewers and silkscreeners) has traditionally been a more feminine domain.

But that is changing. With the advent of newly available “crossover” materials, such as conductive thread that acts like electrical wiring and a microcontroller that Buechley invented to be embroidered onto fabric, it has become easier to do both. Crafters are starting to solder, and tinkerers are learning to sew.