Resources for Paper Circuits and Soft Circuits

These are websites that I have found invaluable in my foray into paper and soft circuits. I will be adding and editing as new resources are found. Please note, these are sites I am aware of and have used, not an all encompassing review. If you have or know of any sites I can add, please send me an email!

Resources for learning simple circuit electronics

• Getting Hands-on with Soft Circuits: A Facilitator's Guide    This is a great instructional booklet written by Emily Lovell that explains how basic circuits work and includes soft circuit projects to demonstrate. The explanations of the circuits can be used for paper circuits as well. The above is the link directly to the PDF. Click here to go to the source from High-Low Tech at MIT.
• Learn About Electricity from Science with Me!     A good basic explanation of a simple circuit.

For more in-depth lessons in learning electronics

• Lessons in Electric Circuits    While I haven't read every volume in the series, I can vouch that Volume I is written so that even I, whose brain does not grasp these concepts easily, can understand the ideas and theories (albeit needing to read a couple .... OK, fine, a few, times over). The volumes are available to download in PDF.
• All About Circuits     This site has the above mentioned Lessons in Electric Circuits as well as Forums, Videos and Worksheets. 
• Make: Electronics    From the good folks that started Maker Faire et. al., this book is another valuable source for learning electronics presented in an easy-to-understand manner.

Sigh. I do feel like this many times when reading about electronics.

Resources for Paper Circuits

• Jie Qi      The Divine Miss Jie, the paper circuit developer and virtuoso. This link takes you to her Featured project page but make sure you click on the various years.
• Jie Qi's Electronic Pop-up Book     Because this was my introduction to paper circuits and it's so remarkable it needs it's own special link.
• Chibitronics    The source for all that is Circuit Stickers. Check out the Community and Learn links for projects and tutorials.
• High-Low Tech     Founded and directed by Leah Buechley,developer of Lilypad Arduino, at MIT. Click around the links, especially the Tutorials and Materials for both paper and soft circuit inspiration.
• Plusea     AKA Hannah Perner-Wilson. While her main focus is soft circuits, she has both paper and soft circuit projects. You can also use the soft circuit ideas to see how you could incorporate it into paper circuits. This is a juicy site that will take you more than one visit to peruse all the wonderful that it contains.
• Exploratorium     (We need one of these in Detroit. Just want to put that out into the universe.) The link above takes you directly to their paper circuit page. However, make sure you visit their main Projects page for other engaging projects. Also, go to their Tinkerers page and be inspired by all the wonderful people (a link to each individual's web page is found when you click on their name/face).
• Circuit Sticker School Binder
• Paper Battery Holder Template    Direct link to Jie Qi's fabulous coin cell battery holder you can make with paper.

Resources for Soft Circuits

• Leah Buechley    As stated above, she founded and directs High-Low Tech at MIT and developed the Lilypad Arduino. This article in Makezine does a nice job of telling about her background and how she developed the Lilypad. Click here for her projects page at MIT.
• Plusea     As stated above, this is a juicy site with lots of wonderful.  
• How To Get What You Want    Wearable technology documentation brought to you by Hannah Perner-Wilson (Plusea) and Mika Satomi (together known as KOBAKANT). Incredible site. 
• eTextile Lounge    Run by Lynne Bruning. Lots of information in the forms of reviews, tutorials, products and projects. Direct link to her Instructables page. 
• Soft Electronics Tutorials     Powered by Katie Dektar. Excellent documentation.
• Getting Hands-on with Soft Circuits    I talked about this above in the Learning Simple Circuits Section but just in case you skipped over it.
•  Sewn Circuits    A PDF from the Exploratorium in San Francisco. OK, so I wouldn't put things on this list if it wasn't excellent, but an excellent guide. So there.     
• Exploritorium's Sewn Circuits Projects page    Make sure to check out the "Related Blog Posts" located on the left side of the page.
• Meg Grant     Brilliant stuff.
• Make Your Own Electronic Sewing Kit 
• Soft Circuit Merit Badge    Go ahead. Make one for yourself. You deserve it. 
• Sparkfun's E-Textiles Tutorials  
• Sparkfun's E-Textiles Resources
• Adafruit's Sewable Circuits Guide
• Becky Stern's projects on Adafruit    
• Plug and Wear's E-Textiles Tutorials 

Resources for Materials

• Circuit Stickers via Crowd Supply
• Maker Shed has Circuit Stickers and items for  SoftCircuits/Wearables
• Sparkfun    Click "E-Textiles" for conductive thread, LilyPad Arduino components and items relating directly to soft circuits. Click "Components" to find the bulb LED selection. But that doesn't mean you have to stop there!
• Adafruit     Scroll down for all categories of electronic goodies. They carry Circuit Stickers.
• Plug and Wear    One stop shop for e-textile/ soft circuit projects: conductive fabric and tapes, components, sensors and lots more! They even have a textile perfboard! Wait, what? Really. (Thanks, Riccardo!)
• Delphi Glass    While I encourage you to shop a local stained glass store for your copper tape, if there isn't one available, I highly recommend this Michigan store. If you happen to live in Lansing, go visit their brick and mortar store.    
• Plusea's Etsy shop     Textile sensor kits and copper thread that's solderable!
• LessEMF    Conductive fabrics, thread, yarn, fabric tape and hook and loop fastener tape.
• Aniomagic    Kits with lights that sparkle ("Sparkle") and that you can easily add sensors and program ("Chicklet").  You can also get Sparkle, Chicklet and extra lights at Sparkfun. Sparkfun also has a nice video tutorial on their product page.