E-textile tooling: new tools—new culture?

BACKGROUND: The maker movement in recent years has shed light on the blurring boundaries between crafts, creativity, and technology. Tools are a key part of the creation process, shaping both our process of making and the objects we make. They do so through their form and material influence, the matter they can handle, as well as the skills needed to utilize them. Often, tools also evoke stereotypical associations of who is using them and what is being produced with them. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS: In the following, I focus on needlework tools and the crafting of electronic textiles. I introduce research into the shape and aesthetics of needlework tools that incorporate the functionality of electronic probes. On a functional level, they can be used to construct pieces of textile crafts as well as to connect and test their electrical functions while making. On a metaphorical level, they allude to a possible alternative realm of creating electronic devices and components. In connecting the skills and aesthetics of textile crafting to electronic objects, we want to spark an exchange between different making cultures and enable diverse approaches for expression.