Need a quick fix? FORMcard's your answer!

“FORMcard”, says its inventor, designer Peter Marigold, “is a handy, pocket sized card of strong, meltable biopolastic that you can use to make, fix and modify the world around you. Just drop it in a cup of hot water and it's ready to use. Keep one in your wallet, toolbox or kitchen drawer so that it's always around when you need to fix something.”

In today’s throwaway world, where the words ‘mend’ and ‘repair’ are rapidly fading from most people’s vocabularies, the new product nonetheless seems to be striking a chord. The project went live on Kickstarter on 11 November 2015, and was fully funded– attracting 2031 backers  - a mere 3 weeks later. Moving to the Indiegogo platform, it went on to receive 815% funding by the end of January 2016.

Marigold, who, in the past, has worked on displays for galleries, installations and public art projects, developed the idea after becoming interested in plastics that melt at low temperatures and how they could be used in the home by consumers.

Made from a starch-based bio-plastic that is totally non-toxic, FORMcard turns into a pliable mass in a cup of hot water, after which the material is immediately ready to use. “You can fix things quickly in emergency situations, like when a handle breaks on a tool, or a button falls off your jacket. They are strong like nylon, not rubbery, so they can be used for long-lasting solutions,” according to Marigold.

It can also be reused – “numerous times”, claims its inventor, simply by re-heating in hot water, and it is fusable with other plastics, including ABS and Polyester, making it suitable for repairing, for example, some kinds of cracked car bumpers or broken car wing mirrors.

FORMcard production takes place in the UK. “Through friendly negotiation with molders in the U.K., we have found a price that is as economical to production in the far east once import / export costs are taken into consideration,” explains Marigold. He also worked closely with the material producer, molders and the colorant suppliers to ensure the non-toxity of the material, rejecting the use of universal pigments which contain styrenes in favor of powder pigments. “Messier for us, but better for you and everyone else,” says Marigold.

FORMcard comes in a host of colors, to fit the needs of the different situations that arise, which, looking at the product’s FaceBook page (https://www.facebook.com/formcardplastic), can be anything from creating an iPhone stand to fixing a broken umbrella. Which was precisely the intention of its creator, who says: “I believe that this material has a place in everyone's kitchen drawer, tool box and back pack, like Blu-tack or Selotape, so I developed it into a flat card form, that would always be around and always be ready to use.”

FORMcard can be ordered from the Indiegogo site and is also available through the German online store, Modulor.