Looking for a special something for your special someone to give a electrifying Valentine’s Day gift? Here is a tip: Sparkfun is running a Plushbot Class on Saturday Feb 11th at the Sparkfun HQ in Boulder, CO from 9am until 5pm

The eTextile class centers around the Plushbot design, which incorporates electronics into stuffed animals to create interactive toys.

This class offers a excellent opportunity not only to pick up eTextile tips and tricks but also to walk away with a one-of-a-kind Valentine’s Day present.

Instructors of this class will be Yingdan Huang, the creator of the Plushbot, Lindsay, Jeff and Dia, eTextile goddess at Sparkfun.

You will learn about and handle eTextile elements like light sensor, LEDs, switches and buzzer, flex sensor, conductive thread, felt, a 1000mAh Lipo Battery and a LilyPad Simple Board.

Minimum requirement for participation is to thread a needle – in case you are not that far yet – still time to practice until Saturday.

You will also need to bring your own laptop with Arduino software installed – please see all details on Sparkfun’s website.

Wish you a happy sewing, stitching and switching.

On Saturday May 21st at 3:00PM fashion designers, engineers and the immensely growing nubbier of wearable technology experts will come together for the ‘eTextile, smart clothing and wearable computing Showcase‘ at the Maker Fair.

The ‘eTextile, smart clothing and wearable computing Showcase’ is a production of Lynne Bruning, one of the most knowledgeable eTextile experts herself.

A long list of designers have already signed up to showcase their eTextile creations but Lynne is still accepting designs to include into the ‘eTextile, smart clothing and wearable computing Showcase’.

If you are interested to show off your design, contact Lynne on or before Wednesday May 11th 2011 under lynne at lynnebruning.com

The program shows a ‘super special secret guest dress’ – I wonder what that could be?

A reminder for the creative, inventive and interested eTextile community around the world:

Lynne Bruning started a fantastic initiative to bring interactivity into the eTextile community around the globe by setting up and moderating the global eTextile Lounge via USTREAM.tv

A excellent opportunity to meet like minded, to get informed, to network and best of all to join in to the discussions, get tips and learn tricks from the best of the best in the eTextile world.

This weeks eTextile Lounge will be the third edition starting at 8pm MDT / 10pm EST / 2am GMT / 10am Asia on April 12/13th (depending which time zone you are).

Sadly, I can not make it (again) for this weeks meet-up but I know Lynne is planning to record the session so everyone as unfortunate as I am will be able to follow the meet-up off-line. For my part, I have to figure out a way to be able to the eTextile Lounge – a place I do not want to miss out ever again.

Last night 8pm MDT / 10pm EST / 2am GMT / 10am WITA (South East Asia – Central Standard Time) – I hope I got all the time conversions right – Lynne Bruning pulled off the first Global eTextile Hacker meet-up in the virtual space with the help of USTREAM.tv an online service that offers live video broadcast and moderation and a parallel chat room to interact with the moderator and among the participants via text chat function.

At the above time eTextile lovers around the world connected to this first ever eTextile hackerspace event. It was nice to chat with people this way and Lynne’s moderation and initiation triggered at the end of the one hour event a lively discussion.

Considering the short preparation, the first public test of the system – it was amazingly exiting to participate and get to know new eTextile enthusiasts as well as chat with well known personalities.

Lynne is planning to make the eTextile hackerspace virtual meet-up a regular event, with the next session on Mar. 29th  same time as above.

Until then I suggest you sign up for free at USTREAM and check out Lynne’s video stream to be ready for next week and join the discussion, ask question, share your ideas, experience and help each other on and off-line.

Thanks Lynne for getting this organized – a fabulous initiative. I’m looking forward to check-in again into the virtual hackerspace next week.

Future Textiles is the name of a three-week long event focusing on collecting and communicating knowledge about smart textiles.

The Future Textiles summit is hosted by the Knowledge Center for Smart Textiles at TEKO Design + Business, VIA University College, in Herning Denmark.

During the summit, Knowledge Centre for Smart Textiles organizes the exhibition ‘Pretty Smart Textiles‘, an international prize competition and a large number of seminars, workshops and master classes targeted to companies, teachers and students.

Besides the ‘Pretty Smart Textiles’ exhibition, workshops for students, a Masterclass for design teachers, an expert summit, seminars for the textile industry and for International Students are the events that urn over the three weeks.

Interesting for students from all over Europe who are invited to take part in the international prize competition and 6,500 EUR pocket money for the winner which will be announced on May 12th 2011

The Future Textiles Summit starts on May 2nd and for 3 weeks Denmark will be the center of the eTextile world.

More information of all activities can be found on the Textiles Future Website – go and check it out, this extensive summit program offers a large selection of events covering every aspect from research to business.

This link opens the Future Textiles program in PDF format.

Just before the Smart Textiles Salon, the University of Ghent in cooperation with Plug and Wear and Systex organize a two part, three day workshop on Intelligent Textiles.

Part I will equip the participant with fundamental theoretical knowledge and practical insights in the field of intelligent textiles. The practical workshop, STS ToolTime, by Riccardo Marchesi from Plug and Wear will teach how to apply the information obtained in the lecture of Prof. Lieva Van Langenhove, building the bridge between the theoretical part and the design application.

Part II will consolidate and deepen the knowledge gained in the first part. Besides stimulating the participant’s creativity, this workshop will inform the participant about existing prototypes and possible application areas of smart textiles.

During the interactive exhibition at the Smart Textiles Salon, the participant can see, touch and experience realized smart textiles in functioning prototypes.

The course is open to all persons involved or interested in the field of smart textiles. Besides research institutes, academia, industry or public institutions, capital investors as well as designers are welcome.

Check out the Intelligent Textiles workshop page for all details or download the workshop brochure in PDF format.

The Gray Area Foundation for the Arts has on their extensive list of workshops one that will be highly interesting for our smart (textile) readers: the Soft Circuitry workshop on Saturday April 2, 2011 and Sunday April 3, 2011 from 10:00am – 4:00pm

Instructor of the Soft Circuitry workshop is Lara Grant who will start with the history of wearables, an introduction to electrical components and schematics and to wearable conductive materials. After that intro the hands-on part starts with basics of how to prototype a sound generating circuit on a breadboard, how to use a multimeter and the making of wearable switches and variable resistors.

The second day starts off with an intro to the LilyPad, how to install software, more electronic insight into power management, sensors and how to transfer the test setup from the breadboard onto textiles.

Soft Circuitry is targeted towards beginner in eTextile technology and does not require prior experience with electronics or sewing. Nevertheless, Lara will make sure that every participant will walk away with circuits made in the workshop, as well as a list of sources for materials and further online resources to further their education outside of the workshop.

Registration is required as space is limited and a course fee of $ 240.- w/o or $ 290.- including all materials like the LilyPad. Click over and sign up if you are interested into making first contact with the world of smart textiles.

The second edition of the Smart Textiles Salon, an initiative from the University of Ghent, Belgium and Systex, is well under way and accepting project submissions until March 15th.

Your project prototype should fit in the scope of the exhibition being textile based or compatible with intelligent textile systems.

Documents must be written in English with high resolution (300dpi) image resolution to Judith.Kenis@UGent.be The template for submission can be found on the Smart Textiles Salon website.

STS has only space for a maximum of 20 prototypes therefore a jury will select the projects and notify the participants end of March 2011.

Open up your eTextile treasure chest and submit your smart textile idea – cool prizes will await the winners and the opportunity to show your creation a high profile audience during the Smart Textiles Salon event on 21 April 2011 in Ghent.

A number of eTextile and wearable technology events coming up, events that you don’t want to miss.

Already tomorrow Thursday March 10th, Lynne Bruning is giving a lecturer titled ‘Introduction to eTextiles‘ at the Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts, located at the Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida.

Crossing the Atlantic, Riccardo Marchesi from Plug-and-Wear is running a 3 day on Wearable Technology Workshop from April 7-9 in Florence, Italy.

Both events are leaded by experts in the wearable technology field which ensures that participants get the greets and latest infos, tip and trick on eTextiles and wearable technology.

Click on the event links above for more details and registration.

I am still in a catch-up mode with my blogging but whenever you organize events around eTextiles and wearable technology or whenever you hear about such event – please drop me a note via the contact form or in the comments or tweet me (hit the Twitter link on the right side).

Syuzi over at Faschioning Technology is very busy organizing the first major event in wearable technology of 2011, the FashionWare SXSW exhibition on March 18th and 19th in Austin, Texas.

The FashionWare show will bring on stage the most advanced and beautiful wearable tech garments of today. Here is a short list of some of the highly interesting designs awaiting the visitors to see: Klight, designed by Mareike Michel, Laser Suit from Wei-Chieh Shih, Petal Dress by Amy Winters, 3Elctromode with designs from Valerie Lamontage and Magalie Cn, Bats Have Feelings Too by Lynne Bruning and the Twinkle Pad by Diana Eng.

Check out the video below, made by Syuzi as teaser for the FashionWare show and admire all the creativity and aesthetic designs, see how innovative technology transforms fashion.

FashionWare SXSW from Syuzi Pakhchyan on Vimeo.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to visit the FashionWare Show but if you attend this event please drop me a line and tell me what I have missed by not being there.

For more details check out FashioningTech.