When the wooden knob came off our 50’s Danish tea kettle, we TRIED EVERYTHING we could think of make it stick tightly to its metal lid that would regularly got really hot. No longterm success. We finally put the kettle in the street hoping someone would find a use for it. We wish we’d known about Sugru, a silicone “modeling clay” that sticks to many materials including aluminum, steel, ceramics, glass and some plastics like perspex. You’ve got 30 minutes to mold it or use it as you want; after that, it’ll cure at room temperature, into a tough, flexible materials that is waterproof, and can withstand temperatures from -76′ to 356’F.

According to Sugru’s site, it is the brainchild of Jane, who was studying product design when she had an idea: “I don’t want to buy new stuff all the time. I want to hack the stuff I already have so it works better for me.”  So she enlisted some materials scientists to help her develop a material that would allow her to do that.

We’re inspired by the gallery of possible uses sent in by Sugru users…Our favorites:

using it to adapt a videocamera for skydiving…

…and adding grippy feet to a chopping board to keep it from sliding

…and making a usb lid connector to keep from losing the little cap…

We especially love their philosophy: “Hack things better. That’s our motto…It’s not about ‘making-do’, it’s about taking control of our stuff; modifying and improving the products we own so that they work better for us.”

YES!!!

We already have a ton of ideas for using Sugru, and ordered some in chic black and white.

You can buy it here, in packs of colors, or black-and-white, or small packs of single colors.

Related posts: repair manifesto is a force!

the fixer’s collective: improvisational mending + fix

duct tape repair of bear-ravaged plane

lemon squeezer repair in honor of platform 21

hacking ikea: throw away the book!

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