Every month (except December) we bring people together* to give the objects we share our world with a second lease of life and to chat and have a cuppa whilst we're at it (*currently online)
We’ll be back for more repairing in September at Brighton’s Mini Maker Faire
on the 6th September; a great annual event where creativity and invention are encouraged in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways!
In the mean time check out the event Izzie (one of the Brighton Repair Café’s Founders) is holding at the end of the month:
We will be taking some time off over the summer and won’t be holding an August Repair Café.
So make sure you come along tomorrow and fix those electric fans, deck chairs and summer clothes whilst you have a chance!
We will have volunteers on hand to help you fix electrical goods, jewellery, clothing and textiles, furniture and to darn your woollens.
Ali A.K.A ‘The Chair Doctor’ went to work on two loved but rickety old chairs.
He secured the top rail of a chair by reinforcing the outside spindles, gluing and pining it back in to place.
Another chair which had somehow had its arm wrenched off,
needed the gnarly pins and screws embedded in the wood to be removed from both the stile
and the side seat rail.
The side seat rail which had been split, then needed to be reinforced so measurements were taken
and the wood was cut to size with a jigsaw power tool.
Then wood glue was used to hold the split seat rail together
before clamping and drilling the support into place and leaving to dry until the next session when the mend will be completed.
Meanwhile inside Nikolay our new electrical repair volunteer analysed why Amanda Jackson‘s camera flash gun was not working.
Amanda Jackson is a brilliant photographer who has won a commission to create photographs for a 10 month One Planet Living exhibition which will be displayed at Emmaus in Portslade from October onwards.
Amanda’s theme is “Sustainable Materials” and she has been documenting our activities at the Brighton Repair Café during the last couple of sessions as we encourage reuse.
Unfortunately, when she arrived at the June Repair Café her flash gun stopped working.
Fortunately we had the right man on-hand to help her!
After a lot of concentration he worked out the problem
and showed Amanda how to fix it.
Rachel brought in the faux fur coat she had borrowed from her sister.
She had leant against railings at the station without realising they were newly painted and had been left with a stained sleeve.
After some discussions about how to tackle the stain,
Rachel tried brushing it out.
This got rid of the clumps of paint but the stain was still there.
Then guest volunteer Terry stepped in with some Cif,
which he worked into the material with kitchen roll and his fingers.
After a rince the stain was gone and just needed time to dry before giving the arm another brush.
Rachel was relieved to know she could give it back to her sister without her even noticing the difference!
As usual Tom of Holland came along equipped with materials for every darning emergency.
He helped this lady work out what needed to be done to her People Tree jumper
(which comes with the thread to repair it),
before showing her how to go about the mend.
Anna (who had knitted the dress she wore that day) finished some beautiful visible mending darning on her sock
and in any spare moments Tom worked on his own wonderful darning.
A broken pair of sunglasses was given a temporary fix
until a replacement screw could be acquired,
with the help of Sam, some long nosed pliers and wire.
Izzie over-saw some fiddly rethreading of beaded necklaces.
Whilst Fiona & Chrissie offered advice on how to repair a bracelet.
Dan was as busy as ever with bike repairs and helped someone fix their child’s bike.
Hannah fixed both her top and a china tray,
the handle of which had broken off and needed gluing back on.
Alongside all of that Ali even had time to fix one of his tools…
a hammer which the handle had broken off.
Thanks to all the volunteers old and new for making it such a lively and diverse repairing event
&
thanks to Magoo for taking some of the photos we’ve used.
We will have volunteers on hand to help you fix electrical goods, jewellery, clothing and textiles, and to darn your woollens.
After the successful repairing at the June repair café we will also have Ali, our wonderful new volunteer, helping you fix your furniture.
Sadly, we won’t be offering bike repairs this session, but if you need help to fix your bike head down to the Bike Hub. They are really helpful and doing great work.
Brighton Repair Café 