Week 00 — Final Project

🌿 Overview

For my final project, I'm developing the first prototype from my wearable jewelry line HardWear, a research-driven extension of my ongoing asl practice. The project combines electronics, design, and craft to explore how technology and nature can coexist through wearable forms.

Each piece is both aesthetic and functional, carrying sensors or circuits that respond to the body and environment. I want to merge my background in art and materiality with the technical skills learned throughout HTMAA — translating code, copper, and conductivity into intimate, tactile forms.

💡 Concept

HardWear investigates the animacy of materials — circuits that behave like veins, traces that echo scars or root systems, and jewelry that listens, senses, and remembers.

Each piece acts as a "cyber-amulet" — an object that connects the digital to the organic:

• It senses something from the body or surroundings
• It reacts through light, motion, or stored data
• It becomes a symbolic "living artifact," continuing my family's lineage of goldsmithing in Al-Balad while reimagining craft through electronics

The series begins with a Sun pendant PCB — a capacitive copper disk surrounded by LED rays — that glows in response to human touch.

Inspiration

🧩 What It Will Do

The final artifact will be a wearable electronic jewelry piece that:

• Reacts to the body through capacitive touch or environmental sensing
• Outputs light animations through embedded LEDs (symbolizing energy, warmth, and connection)
• Optionally logs or remembers sensor data (memory as metaphor)
• Visually merges organic motifs (veins, rays, tree rings) with electronic traces

🧠 Precedents

There are precedents in wearable electronics, but few merge traditional craft lineage with modern fabrication:

• Pauline van Dongen — kinetic solar garments
• Anouk Wipprecht — interactive fashion and sensor couture
• Nadya Peek & Neil Gershenfeld's Fab Academy projects — PCB jewelry prototypes

HardWear extends this dialogue into a Middle Eastern craft context, fusing Bedouin metal forms with cybernetic circuitry.

⚙️ What I Will Design

• Custom PCB jewelry boards inspired by Bedouin amulets and anatomical systems
• Functional electronics:
  • Capacitive touch sensing
  • Light output (LEDs)
  • Optional data logging (temperature, motion, or environmental)
• Form language: Curves and geometries derived from organic systems (veins, roots, solar flares)
• Wearability system: Mounting holes, soldered jump rings, optional conductive chains

🪄 How I Will Make It

1. Design & Modeling

• Sketch + Illustrator concept art (organic / Bedouin / anatomical motifs)
• Convert to SVG → import into Fusion Electronics as board outlines
• Component layout, routing, copper pours, and aesthetic patterning

2. Fabrication

• Prototype on FR-1 using the Roland SRM-20 for single-layer milling
• Final version: order from board house (ENIG finish, 0.8 mm FR-4, matte black or white mask)
• Solder SMD components (LEDs, resistors, Seeed XIAO RP2040)

3. Programming

• Firmware on XIAO RP2040 (Arduino):
• Capacitive touch pad → toggles light animations
• LED "breathing" and "chasing" patterns
• Optional sensor integration (light sensor or accelerometer)

4. Finishing

• Sand and clean board edges for comfort
• Add conformal coating or resin to seal
• Attach jump rings / earring hooks / chain

5. Documentation

• Process photos, code snippets, BOM, design files, and final renders/video

🧰 Materials & Components

🧪 Processes

• EDA schematic design (Fusion 360 Electronics)
• PCB layout and fabrication (milling + outsourcing)
• Surface-mount soldering (fine SMD)
• Embedded programming (Arduino / C++)
• Mechanical finishing and jewelry assembly
• Documentation and photography

📅 Timeline

⚡ Questions to Answer

• How sensitive can capacitive touch be at jewelry scale?
• Can I combine multiple sensors (touch + temperature or motion) on one board?
• How can I make solder joints and traces look intentional — ornamental rather than purely functional?
• What's the most ergonomic way to wear or power it (USB vs battery)?

🔋 Evaluation Criteria

• Functional interactivity: Touch → light response
• Craft and finish quality: Clean soldering, wearability
• Integration of design and technology: Not just a working circuit, but a designed object
• Documentation quality: Clarity, process, reflection
• Novelty: Merging cultural craft and digital fabrication

✨ Expected Outcome

A working, wearable, sun-inspired PCB pendant that lights up when touched — bridging ancestral jewelry craft, modern electronics, and design storytelling. This piece becomes the foundation for a larger collection exploring body, environment, and technology as one connected system: HardWear: cyber-organic jewelry.