How Has Felt Felt? "Felt+Circuits" from Monome Creators

Kelli Cain and Brian Crabtree are a part of the team which has given birth to the acclaimed Monome controller, many times sold-out and recently re-issued in a new shape. The fact that they've managed to develop such a nifty tool hasn't made them step aside from the drawing board and neither has it meant that the Monome was a terminal station in the controller-world.[admark=1]

As a matter of fact, during the last four weeks, the two ran a series of workshops in LA under the "Felt Circuits" name, and whose main goal was to integrate 100% natural components with 100% artificial products. Things looked quite un-directed at the beginning of the experiment but as time passed on, the results started to show up.

The team has developed and brewed all sorts of vegetable dyes used for coloring the wool. Yep, we're talking raw wool that was then hand-rubbed into felt... The "artisans" decided that only non-industrial methods were to be used in the development of the new objects as the only things with industrial origin should be those that were simply impossible to create during the workshop, such as USB cabling and plugs, circuitry and so on.

The students had then to create a shape for the new gear and design the parts to be sewn together to actually make the desired objects. The circuit boards were then inserted and cabled the proper way such as the bunch of natural-dyed felt and electronic pieces became a real controller in the shape of a pocket calculator....well, "a tad" larger, but looking very much like one nevertheless. Pressing the buttons would result in all sorts of noises when the "Feltulator" (random name which came in my mind, not an official name) was connected to an USB port.

There aren't any known plans for the future of such a gear, but rumors say that a NYC workshop is due.

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