MWMG ‘Fixes it’ at the 2012 Sustainable Living Festival

(pictured: participants at the ‘Fix it!’ workshop held during the SLF festival).

This year as part of our sponsorship of the 2012 Sustainable Living Festival, MWMG provided the opportunity for the ‘Fix it!’ community group to run one of their Fix It! Workshops at the festival. This report is provided by Fix it! Coordinator, April Seymour.

Over 300 people came through the workshop at the SLF’s  Big Weekend and over 30 participated in fixing and skill sharing. The youngest participant was 7 and  was taught to sew by a 10 year old. Another participant spoke almost no English but came and upcycled fabric scraps into a bag.

There were 13 pre-registered items that were brought in to be repaired including lamps, a bed spread and a radio. The items that could not be repaired on the day had arrangements made for follow up fixing lessons (with availability of more tools) through the Connected Community Hackerspace, who provided many of the Switches volunteers.

Items brought in drop-in style included a backpack, a sports shin guard, a jumper (turned into a purse), a clock radio, an olive oil spray pump and shoes.

The oldest fix was a lamp that had been patiently awaiting repair for over 20 years, cooperatively fixed in under 10 minutes!  The cleverest fix was tooling a bead into the part needed to repair an umbrella and the most common skill shared was how to use a sewing machine.

A number of friendships were struck up for follow up repairs, events and get-togethers. Twenty-eight skilled volunteers contributed to repairing about 30 electrical items, making or repairing over two dozen textile items, reviving umbrellas and tool-sharpening. The number of stories and tips swapped were countless!

Upcycled, hacked and reinvented works were displayed by 6 artists/technicians including 92-year-old Sara Fonda from Recycling is Fun.

Around four dozen people took home information on Urban Bush Carpenters workshops after the guys demonstrated their skills building an esky and planter box from scrap wooden pallets.

The four sewing machines, overlocker and a jigsaw that were used on the day were run on solar power only! And most of the Splinters crew used good old human power.

Thirty-five people shared suburb and contact details to contribute to future Fix it! projects. To find out more about the groups regular ‘Fix it!’ activities visit the Fix it! Facebook page or follow via Twitter.