This article was taken from the June issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content bysubscribing online
Broken bike seat? Cracked cups? Don’t bin them -- Jane ní Dhulchaointigh wants you to hack them better, and she’s invented a product to help.
Sugru is a Play-Doh-like substance with waterproof, adhesive and heat-resistant qualities, and it sets at room temperature. Launched last December, all 3,000 packets rapidly sold out -- so now production is at ten times that scale. Ní Dhulchaointigh, 31, had the idea while she was at the Royal College of Art in 2003.
“I was making things with silicone sealants and sawdust, and started using the leftovers around the house,” she says at her east London base. “I modified a knife handle to make it more comfortable. My boyfriend said, 'Imagine if everyone could do that -- like with stiff jam-jar lids.' It was a great idea.” But it took seven years, two experts and the materials department at Queen Mary, University of London, to create a silicone that would be sticky but would also set rock hard without heating.
The result is a substance officially called Formerol. Each pack includes hack suggestions, though ní Dhulchaointigh has seen some original uses: "Someone sculpted a pair of hands coming out of their bathroom sink to hold the soap." This enthusiasm, she says, is down to the growth of user-generated content online. "If digital stuff can be manipulated then people are going to expect it from physical products as well."
Want to learn how to hack things better? We can tell you how.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
