We held our inaugural workshop with Rough Trade last week – and it was a rip-roaring success!
Some wonderful participants came along and each made a Lumiphone. Take a look at the results below.

Our next workshop is going to be the 15th of October at Rough Trade. It is the DIY Speaker workshop. Join in if you’d like to create your own amplifier and make speakers using any material. Book tickets over the counter at Rough Trade East – or by following this link!

More images over at our flickr set.

We are extremely pleased to announce our upcoming residency with the truly wonderful Blood Mountain Foundation in Budapest, Hungary. During our residency, we will be working with Blood Mountain to complete the deveolopment of the Thirsty Plant Kit – among other very exciting things. We will also be offering 3 workshops during Design Week Budapest.

View the Blood Mountain Press Release here.

6 October: Soldering the Lumiphone
2 to 5pm. Doors open 10.30am
A DIY soldering experience: participants adapt a kit of disparate electronic components to create a musical device. Includes introduction to TWSU’s work and an informal Q&A. No prior experience is necessary.

8 October: Electro-dough workshop
For six to 12 year-olds
11am to 1pm. Doors open 10.30am
Working with electrically conductive play-dough and basic electronics, participants learn about basic electronics and create playful functional objects. In line with BM’s ongoing educational programme and facilitated by our education officer, this is a bilingual event.

9 October: Thirsty Plant workshop
2 to 5pm. Doors open 1.30pm
For all design enthusiasts 13 years and older
To understand when plants are thirsty is one of the great challenges of domestic horticulture. During this workshop, participants learn to create a solar powered thirst detector. An updated Thirsty Plant kit will be designed in partnership with BM and produced in Budapest during TWSU’s Design Week residency. Includes
introduction to TWSU’s work and an informal Q&A. No prior experience is necessary.

What a weekend!

We spend the last weekend of the London Design Festival showing our wares at the V&A for their Digital Design Weekend. The event had more than 7,200 visitors over the two days!

Then to top it all off, we offered an Electro Dough workshop for 200 people simultaneously during our talk for the Google Design Lectures also at the V&A. All of the participants were given their very own set of USB Cells along with a full Electro Dough kit. It was fantastic seeing so many people actually making something during a talk. Huge thanks to Chris Sanderson and the London Design Festival for making it happen.

Take a look at the results of our Light Painting demonstration below. We had a truly fantastic time!

On Friday the 9th of September, we opened Haberdashery East – our kiosk at Rough Trade East. We’ve uploaded some photos from the build and setup process below. Join us for a workshop, or get your DIY electronic fix by visiting our kiosk at Rough Trade East!

If you’re interested in our products & kits, take a look at our resource section

Or if you’re interested in joining us for a workshop, take a look at our classes page.

We are thrilled to be able to share this with the world. We are about to launch Haberdashery East with Rough Trade and Prick Your Finger. Download the press release here or read on below!

SOLDERING IRONS, DIY TECHNOLOGY KITS AND MAKE YOUR OWN SPEAKERS WORKSHOPS…WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY WILL SAVE US

Technology Will Save Us is the first haberdashery for technology and education space.

We aim to help everybody experience the joy of making technology work the way they want it to. We show people what they’re capable of with our DIY technology kits, our workshops and support services.

We enable them to understand how to build new things for themselves by being more creative and resourceful with the technology in their lives.

Hackney basedTWSU has recently partnered with London’s indie music temple RoughTrade East to launch Haberdashery East, a concept space for all technology and DIY lovers to experiment and learn.The space will also feature PrickYour Finger, a traditional craft haberdashery with a distinctly punk woollen offer.

With a newly purpose-built display area and dual-purpose cafe/worktables, Haberdashery East will showcaseTWSU’s first collection of DIY kits and a series of hands-on workshops. Kits include a DIY Speaker Kit that contains all you need to solder up an amplifier and make your own set of working speakers. A Lumiphone Kit which includes all the components needed to create a custom musical device. A complete Soldering Kit with all the tools and instruction to get you started in the wonderful world of DIY technology. They will also be selling Arduinos for those inter- ested in programming, the Sparkfun Inventors Kits perfect for anyone that wants to get deeper into doing more with technology and a few other products including Sugru – hacking putty and USB Cells – USB re-chargeable batteries.

In addition to theTWSU Kits and curated products they will also be offering hands-on workshops every month.The workshops range from ‘How to wire a plug’ to ‘Building a solar powered thirst detector for your house plants’.

The in-store workshops start on Wednesday 28 September at 7pm launching with a ‘Build your own Lumiphone Workshop’.

TWSU founders Bethany Koby and Daniel Hirschmann are a London-based creative duo. Bethany is an American born designer, brand and innovation consultant and Daniel is a South African born interactive artist, educator and creative technologist.

Speaking ahead of the launch, Bethany says: ‘I believe technology plays a huge role in all of our lives and we know so little about how to fix it, how to make things with it and how to be more creative with it’. Daniel further explains, ‘We see a more creative world where people can get the skills and support to be more resourceful with technology and begin to solve their own problems and invent new uses – become producers not just consumers of technology’

The full range of DIY Kits and products are available to buy exclusively at Haberdashery East at RoughTrade East
‘Dray Walk’
Old Truman Brewery
91 Brick Lane London
E1 6QL

TWSU is working on an exciting project to open its first haberdashery for technology here in London! We are actively looking for some talented and enthusiastic individuals to join us for a volunteership to help our enterprise grow!

DESIGNER
A graphic designer, design thinker, DIY maker, technology enthusiast who can help in the development, design and production of our packing system, in store display system and signage! We would also be open to developing a new DIY kit together if there was interest.
This would be a month long partnership to start with but of course we would be open to discussing more in the future!

CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST
A creative techie genius that is good with people. You must have experience with electronics and development with Arduino. A good eye for design and needs in the world is important too. You would be helping us with the development of current and new DIY Kits and workshops.

PROJECT MANAGER
An enthusiastic, organised person who would be helping us facilitate and produce our education programme and with the manifestation of our physical space being built in the next few weeks.

This would be a month long partnership to start with but of course we would be open to discussing more in the future!

Please email us at info@technologywillsaveus.org if you’re interested or have any questions!

On this past Sunday, Technology Will Save Us offered a completely new workshop to create a device that would let you know when your plants are thirsty: The Thirsty Plant 9000! Each of our attendee’s made their own solar powered thirst detector – and will hopefully ALWAYS remember to feed their plants. It was a lovely day, and was made even more enjoyable by the beautiful and inspiring surroundings at the Physic Garden on Union Street. Go there if you haven’t already!

Browse the flickr set here:

Our weekend of painting with light was a huge success! All the photos have been uploaded to flickr. Photos from the weekend are below. Enjoy!

TWSU pal and partner at Anomaly Johnny Vulcan was kind enough to mention us in an interview he did for b.TWEEN3D. Thank you Signore Vulcan!

We are very excited to announce our participation in the V&A Web Weekend starting on 15/07/2011. We will be demonstrating our newest little plaything: The Light Paintbrush! We’ll be drawing with light in space with images and text pulled off the web related to the V&A. Have a look at some of our teaser images below. Hope to see you there!