This Month in Fibreglass: May 2014

It's another month of fibreglass "not news", wrapped up in this cut-out-and-keep, witty blog. May has brought us sexy fibreglass puffins, another fibreglass house of sorts and a plastic that heals itself, deal with it.

Plastic Puffins

The look of love but the feel of plastic. The story of my life.

What do you do if your island is lacking in puffins? It's a question we have all asked ourselves at some point in our lives. If your island is Ramsey Island, and your fibreglass puffins don't do the job on their own, what you need is a puffin disco. A solar powered sound system playing the sounds of sexy
puffins. The idea is to lure passing birds with the music of love (in this case a low growl, mmmm!) once hooked, those puffins will see the decoys, make a nest and breed, just like the mythological sirens but with less death and more disappointment.

Hello, boys.

Could other fibreglass decoys work? Try one of these GRP lovelies and let me know what turns up.

Witchcraft

 

An epoxy-like material that grows its own scaffold to cover gaps as big as 35mm in as little as 20 minutes? Yep this plastic contains liquid plastic that seeps out at the puncture point and sets, however this is a new two stage system for bigger holes. We are moderately impressed.

Frankenstein quote of the month, "We have the ability to create complex, 3D bio-inspired vascular architectures." Thank you, Nancy Sottos, professor of material sciences and engineering at Illinois.

Space Tourism

For Sale, only 4 million genuine light years on the clock, FSH.

Up for sale (in New Zealand) what every retro sci-fi fan wants in their garden, a 'Futuro House' fibreglass spaceship! There are a few of these about, designed in Finland in the sixties and made up of 16 bolt together pieces. The disgrace is that many were destroyed as public eyesores and now there are estimated to be about 50 left. Aliens would travel across the universe in an 8m wide GRP saucer, (wishful thinking, I am sure they would end up here for some resin and mat), but I wouldn't turn my nose up if one landed in my garden.