ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY BLOG | INVENTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Nothing could have been better when I was a child than when my mother or father would pick me up a fresh container of Play-Doh. I could spend hours playing with the Play-Doh forming all kinds of animals and structures. And yes there were times when I would leave it out of the container to cure so that I could display my handiwork for my friends and family. So when I cam a cross sugru, a new form of play dough, I had to get my hands on it and check it out. So thank-you Suki from sugru for providing me with a sample of sugru for me to test out. You see Sugru is a self setting silicone rubber that when left out at room temperature for 24 hours cures to a hard but flexible silicone rubber.

Sugru comes in small 5 gm minipacks in a couple of different colors ( red, yellow, purple, black and white) which can be molded in your hands. Because of its properties sugru is a wonderful product that can be used in many different ways. You see sugru is self-adhesive and can bond to aluminium, steel, ceramics, glass, wood, some fabrics and plastics. Sugru has some wonderful properties which makes it ideal for projects that involve repair of items that will be in and around water. Likewise sugru is electrically insulating which makes it an ideal material when doing minor repairs of electrical equipment (ie. power cords). It also handles the hot and cold temperatures well as well as sunlight. Just in case you aren't satisfied with your handiwork, sugru is removable from most non-porous surfaces.

I was fascinated with the possibilities and thought that it would be a lot of fun to create a customized pencil grip using sugru. Getting started was really easy- I opened the minipack, rolled the suru in my fingers and then began to form the suru around the pencil. Once the sugru was on the pencil, I held the pencil as I normal would to create the customized grip that I desired. I then left the pencil out over night and when I returned 24 hours later I had a great custom pencil grip to use. The pencil grip feels great in my hand and has a nice cushiony feel to it. I'm sure many occupational therapists would enjoy using suru in the work that they do with students in the school. Using your creativity the possibilities are endless when using sugru. With a little innovation you will find sugru indispensable for both home and school. Sugru gives you the flexibility to use just one material as you design, improve and customize the things you rely on every single day. Suru has a wonderful website with some great ideas on how you can use sugru- so check it out.