A quick post this morning to ensure you all know about the marvellous multi-fixing thing that is Sugru.
I could have you all wrong and you may all have loads of it in your cupboards already. My hunch is that some of you will, but many of you wont and may not be aware of the sheer brilliance of this product which was designed, by the way, by a woman.
Sugru was invented by RCA student Jane Ni Dhulchaointigh. In a nutshell, she was tired of having to buy new when old stuff broke or went wrong. She wanted to be able to fix more stuff rather than mindlessly heading out to buy new, so came up with Sugru, a substance that looks and feels a bit like Blu-Tack but sets firm to fix pretty much anything. Her story -and it’s a must-read for anyone who has ever been curious as to how a new product ever gets to the market , particularly since it’s London Design Week this week- is told charmingly in her own words here.
I had heard of it but never actually used it until a few weeks ago, when I nearly threw away my much loved and rather fragile horn hair pin, haggled over on a hot summer’s day in Italy from a stylish and hard-nosed market stall holder at Lucca’s monthly flea market. It reminds me of a fabulous holiday and I love its shape and colour, I tried everything to fix it, including the Kintsugi gold glue I rely on, which mends almost everything. But bendy horn is not easy to repair, even with a splint and magical gold glue. On the verge of throwing it away, I remembered Middleagedad had bought some Sugru (which means To Play in Irish) to use in his Refuse 2 Re-Use project, so I had a go. The results you can see above and below. The beloved hair pin is fixed, quite brilliantly, and back in action.
Every home needs some. The pleasure you get from fixing something is immense, a happy rush of satisfaction that encourages you back for more and I am almost thrilled now when something breaks…. If Ms Ni Dhulchaointigh wants my advice, I’d suggest a broader colour palate (you’d be amazed how useful a gold colour way is actually) as my hair pin fixing is pretty obvious, but since that bit of the pin is hidden in hair, it doesn’t matter too much.
Check out the website for more things you can do with the stuff, but just buy some, you wont regret it.
