Molding Hot Glue for LED Wearables #WearableWednesday
Simple ideas can become fabulous solutions, as proven this week by my friends over at blinkblink. They’ve been working on their own LED craft kits and they posted a quick tutorial on molding hot glue. If you are a candle or candy fan, chances are you probably have a silicone mold already in your house. Why is this a big deal? You can embed LEDs quickly and make cool necklaces, pins, shoe decorations and other costume accessories. Like candy making, you start with a small layer of hot glue in the bottom of the mold. After cooling for a few minutes, you can insert the LED, and then add some more glue. The finished object is easy to pull out and ready for circuit making.
One of the biggest reasons I went wild over this tutorial is because I work with youth in STEM programs. Kids will find any excuse to bring out the glue gun and even enjoy just making mounds of glue. They also like creating simple circuits with batteries, copper tape and wire. So, why not join the two activities? You could attach pipe cleaners to the LED bauble and make fun bracelets. You could also use cardboard or card stock to make a base for a pin and then add our magnetic back. Have fun molding and send us some pics of what you make.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!