Paper Circuits with Paula Te

In this hands-on workshop, you'll learn to create illuminated art using simple circuits and LEDs. No prior electronics experience needed—just curiosity and creativity.

Perfect for book artists and anyone else wanting to add an interactive, luminous element to their work. You'll learn the fundamentals of circuits while experimenting with conductive tape, LEDs, and various switches.

What You'll Learn:

• Set up a basic circuit to power an LED.
• Experiment with interactions to control the LED.
• Integrate the LED with a paper structure.

What You'll Make:

Paper circuit samples and at least one finished illuminated paper piece to take home. You'll leave with the skills and confidence to incorporate lights into your future projects.

What's Included:

All materials including LEDs, batteries, conductive copper tape, switches, and papers. Tools and expert instruction provided.

Perfect For:

Book artists, paper crafters, card makers, mixed media artists, or anyone curious about adding interactive elements to their creative work.

Important: This workshop is a prerequisite for our Advanced Paper Circuits workshop. Class size limited to 4-6 participants for hands-on guidance.

Paula Te is a multimedia designer & researcher working at the intersection of craft, learning, and community. A believer of bridging cross-cultural connection through sustainable community craft, she helps organize the Digital Naturalisms Conference and is currently helping with the Gathering for Open Science Hardware 2026. She has been exploring narratives on the Chinese-Indonesian diaspora in collaborations on projects like Born A Problem and 50years.today.

Paula currently resides in Duwamish, Seattle, Washington state. In her day job she works at a cooperatively owned tech worker coop and teaches classes about design with electronics & digital fabrication.