eCrowns
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Crowns (vainags) are worn by unmarried Latvian women as a part of their traditional costumes. The Sirius crown is a pimped up vainag, which helps in finding a partner by sending happy or hostile light and sound signals to approaching candidates. –– CC BY-NC / eCrafts Collective

The Sirius crown in close-up. We embedded electronic components into the traditional crown patterns. In the middle of the crown is a distance sensor for detecting partner candidates. –– CC BY-NC / eCrafts Collective

The electronic components blended well with the traditional design of the crown. Resistors looked almost like beads as they were, and the speaker shimmered in the same shades as the glass beads. The Arduino Lilypad, which served as the brain, was exactly the right shape and size as well. –– CC BY-NC / eCrafts Collective

The Mood selector is an important part of the Sirius crown, as it determines whether the responses to the approaching candidate are friendly or hostile. The one Santims coins that were accumulating in our pockets during the residency found also their place in the magnetic switch of the Mood selector. –– CC BY-NC / eCrafts Collective

The Dancing crown looks almost like a regular vainag - but wait until the wearer starts to dance! The movements cause the crown to blink blue lights, creating a magical impression that is hard to resist. This can be a real advantage for getting more attention on dark and crowded dance floor. –– CC BY-NC / eCrafts Collective

Here we see the blue lights of the Dancing crown in action. LEDs are hidden under a 3D bead construction, which we learned from our neighboring crafts experts in Aizpute. The lights are triggered by the hanging metal beads. When the wearer moves, the beads touch adjacent metal parts, and tadaa, there come the light effects. –– CC BY-NC / eCrafts Collective

We started making the eCrowns by purchasing appropriate materials. Here we are shopping with our crown-making master Linda Rubena in a bead supermarket in Riga. It took us about two hours to choose the beads - thankfully Linda helped us to get out of the shop, and in many other things throughout the crafting process. –– CC BY-NC / eCrafts Collective

This is the original crown from the Skrunda region, which we used as a model for the eCrowns. As you can see, it is not too different from our versions. In fact, several locals recognized the eCrowns as being reinterpretations of the Skrunda crown, and we got lots of cheerful feedback. –– CC BY-NC / eCrafts Collective

Paper prototyping was also a part of our design process. Linda had given us copies from a Latvian crafts book with the Skrunda crown pattern including the right colors and measures. Here we are fitting the paper version on the head of our local friend Diana. –– CC BY-NC / eCrafts Collective

Moving on to actual textile materials, we first sketched a rough image of the pattern on the woolen fabric. We had to also do some initial circuit planning and brainstorming at this point to ensure that we would not run into problems later. –– CC BY-NC / eCrafts Collective

Beading all the little beads on the crowns took quite a while. It was days and days of beading. Our lovely hosts tried to persuade us to go sightseeing or have a break, but we were so immersed in the microscopic world of beads, that we just kept going on. Lots of coffee and Michael Jackson's song 'Bead it' helped in keeping the rhythm. –– CC BY-NC / eCrafts Collective

Once the beading was done, it was time to move on to implementing the circuits inside the crown. As you can see from the photo, things did not get exactly easier. We used conductive yarn for the connections in order to keep the textile feeling, but as it does not have insulation, complex multilayered pathways had to be created. –– CC BY-NC / eCrafts Collective

Here you can see in a bit clearer image of how the Sirius crown circuit connections actually travelled. The Arduino Lilypad controls the operations. It triggers light and sound effects based on the signals coming from the ultrasonic distance sensor - the closer the candidate is, the more intense the effects are. –– CC BY-NC / eCrafts Collective

Some testing was also required in order to check that the crown effects behaved in a desired manner. Here you can see again how the different electronic components were laid out across the Sirius crown. –– CC BY-NC / eCrafts Collective

The last part was assembling the crown with a ring of sturdy cardboard inside. This was done in the middle of the last night of the residency with the patient and wonderful help of Linda, who was determined to bring the eCrowns alive. And indeed, we managed to finish the crown as the sun was rising, and could not stop laughing when we tried it on. It was clearly from Sirius! –– CC BY-NC / eCrafts Collective