About

About Open Wet Spinning

Open Wet Spinning is an open-source hardware initiative developed by the Hybrid Body Lab, building on insights from our EcoThreads research. Our goal is to democratize the fabrication of biodegradable, functional threads for e-textile prototyping—making the process accessible to artists, makers, and researchers alike.

Project Origins

This project originated from our EcoThreads research project, which investigates how biodegradable materials can be spun into functional threads for electronic textile applications. We developed a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) desktop biofiber wet spinning machine that individuals with limited experience in material synthesizing can use to create functional (i.e., conductive and interactive) yarns. The design leverages an open-source DIY syringe pump, the wet spinning machine simplifies the process of creating biodegradable, functional yarns in continuous long strands.

Through our community workshops, we’ve engaged with makers, artists, and textile practitioners to develop sustainable e-textile practices. By sharing our designs, recipes, and learnings openly, we hope to broaden access to sustainable fabrication, foster innovation in biodegradable materials, and build a community around bio-based e-textile exploration. Read more about our project here!

What You’ll Find Here

This website serves as a comprehensive resource for the Open Wet Spinning community, featuring:

  • Detailed machine usage documentation
  • Step-by-step assembly guides
  • A collection of recipes from Hybrid Body Lab researchers
  • Community-contributed recipes and modifications
  • Best practices and troubleshooting guides

Get Involved

We welcome contributions from the community! Whether you’re a researcher, maker, or just interested in sustainable e-textiles, there are many ways to get involved:

  • Try our recipes and provide feedback
  • Share your experiences and modifications
  • Contribute to the documentation
  • Report issues and suggest improvements

Projects Using This Machine

Jingwen Zhu, Lily Winagle, and Hsin-Liu (Cindy) Kao. 2024. EcoThreads: Prototyping Biodegradable E-textiles Through Thread-based Fabrication. In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ‘24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 857, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642718

Jingwen Zhu, Megan Wu, Ruth Zhao, Samantha Chang, and Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao. 2025. Empowering Sustainable E-Textiles: DIY Biofiber Wet Spinning for Community Material Exploration. In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ‘25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 2395–2409. https://doi.org/10.1145/3715336.3735409

Swatches created from our community-engaging workshop

Jingwen Zhu, Samantha Chang, Ruth Zhao, and Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao. 2025. LivingLoom: Investigating Human-Plant Symbiosis Through Integrating Living Plants Into (E-)Textiles. In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ‘25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 773, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713156

Swatches created from chia seed yarn