If you’re a maker who’s thinking of turning your passion into a business, this one’s for you.
TJ McCue, journalist, blogger, maker (and sugru user) is writing a book of case studies, tips and pointers for those of you thinking of going pro.
There are so many amazing ideas and inventions out there, and far too many of them don’t get realised for one reason or another – so I asked him to tell us more.

First things first, tell us a little about yourself.
I work as a business writer and as a startup consultant helping companies to get off the ground. My most recent effort is at Forbes to explore how the maker community is driving innovation and opportunity around the world. I did a roundup post of all the cool Maker Business stories in 2011 at Make, too.

Tell us more about your new book and why you’re writing it. Who it’s for?
You know, Jane, so many makers ask me all the time whether they should turn their passion or their dream into a company.  I almost always say yes, but it isn’t easy – it always, always hinges on finding customers.  Most makers and business owners work the hardest on marketing and sales.  This book is aiming to uncover what made it possible for companies like Makerbot, Adafruit or Sparkfun to be a success. What are their stories?
People are looking for alternatives to “regular jobs” – and that’s partly because they can’t find them, but I believe it is something deeper. More and more people are beginning to question “Am I doing something meaningful with my life?” People want to contribute something to the community around them. Sometimes that’s online; just as often it is in a local community of neighbors, in real life.

My goal with this book is to talk with the maker/hacker founders – people like Bre Pettis from MakerBot Industries, Limor Fried at Adafruit, Rick Pollack at MakerGear, Eric Wilhelm at Instructables, yourself and many people you or I have never heard of but who are doing fundamentally good work that supports other makers. What are their secrets, more or less, to driving awareness and building a business?

You’re crowdfunding on Kickstarter at the moment to publish the book. If others in the sugru community are interested, how can they help or get involved?
It’s a big effort to put out a quality book. And although I’ve helped many others produce their own, this is my first. If people like the project, I’d love them to become a backer.
Just as importantly, though, is the connection to others in the sugru community. Since writing about sugru on Forbes, I’ve met tons of interesting people doing creative and useful projects with your invention. If people think the book would be useful but can’t back it with dollars, then sharing it socially is super valuable and appreciated.

To talk to TJ about the book or anything else, connect with him on twitter @TJMcCue or via his blog on Forbes.com

Last question – what’s your favourite sugru hack?
It is an ultra-simple one – I built a new handle for my garbage can lid that broke off! Saved me $50 for a replacement can. Plus, I protected the corners on my mobile phone. It’s not pretty, but it works when I drop it!

This awesome project was sent to us by Kirsty in Melbourne:

“I fashioned a macro lens for my phone! I got all excited about it & now I’ve made a how-to so you can do it too.  I used some bits of a broken lens (lucky I don’t chuck stuff out) and sugru – it was a quick & easy project.”

And the results look amazing! Check out this close up photo she took with it!

Kirsty’s how-to makes this look super easy…

You can see more of Kirsty’s projects at her blog and follow her on twitter @kootoyoo

Of the 3 sugru ♥ LEGO projects this one makes me wish I was a kid again, it’s pretty exciting to imagine every toy being LEGO-compatible.

To make this project easy to do at home, we’ve made a full step by step here on gurus, and an A4 printable PDF version shown below that you can download and print – How to make all toys LEGO-compatible with sugru.

Enjoy!  And for more sugru ♥ LEGO inspiration, have a look at this little film we made

LEGO is awesome, but making a USB cable desk tidy with LEGO is even more awesome!

And it’s super super easy too.

How cool is this? You can use LEGO to mount everything from cables and earphones to your computer, to your car keys inside the door when you get home.

We know lots of you are excited about doing this, so we’ve made a full step by step here on gurus, and made this printable version shown below that you can download and print -  A4 PDF sugru and LEGO USB cable desk tidy step-by-step.

Enjoy!  And for more sugru ♥ LEGO inspiration, have a look at this little film we made

We’ve gone a bit LEGO crazy around here since we got inspired by the hair people were making for their lego men and when we discovered how well sugru bonds to the little bricks. First we got excited by making a little film, and now we want to help you get stuck in.

So we’ve made some printable step-by-steps to get you going.

This is the first of of 3 sugru ♥ LEGO printables we’ll be posting in the coming week.
Perfect little projects to do on the cold days over the holidays.

Have a look at the full step-by-step on gurus, or download this A4 printable shown above Transform any pen into an awesome LEGO character using sugru PDF, print it out and get cracking!

PS If you’re giving sugru as a gift this Christmas, and the person is a LEGO fan, you might like to include the printables with the pack too, they could be an awesome way of getting a new sugru user off to a great start!

sugru user Carson just posted this fantastic project on gurus showing how he molded a precise new strain relief for his cable using a 3D printed mold.

“A clumsy seat-mate on an airplane broke the audio plug on my earphones when he was trying to get out of his seat. I was able to remove the existing overmolded strain relief and resolder the connections, but I was left without a strain relief. I used some heat shrink tubing for a while, but was unsatisfied with the appearance.

Here’s how I did it:

1) I used 3D CAD software to model up the strain relief geometry for the audio plug.
2) Using the original CAD as reference, I then created CAD for a 2-sided mold for the part.

3) I printed the mold parts out in a 3D printer (polyjet).
4) Needed some mold-release chemicals to allow the parts to come out of the mold, like greasing a cupcake tin. Didn’t have any mold-release handy so I used olive oil.
5) Mold the Sugru around the bare audio plug by hand, while properly aligninge plug into the mold.
6) Close the mold with a C-Clamp and remove excess squeezed out of the mold.
7) 30hrs later, Done! Open the mold and enjoy the new overmolded strain relief I created!”

This is the most precise part we’ve seen someone make with sugru so far, and we’re looking forward to sharing with our friends at Makerbot and the Thingiverse community.

Super inspiring!

Lego is most people’s all time favorite toy right? When we saw Adrian in New York’s and Mike in Utah’s hair for lego men, we got inspired!

Take note: Unlike LEGO, sugru isn’t a toy. While it’s still soft and squidgy, sugru is for grownups, not kids, so keep it away from those little guys. Once sugru has had time to cure, it’s safe for everyone.

There are so many awesome things you can do by combining the two, this is just the beginning.

Here’s the first of many:
Add LEGO bricks to your monitor and your stuff to keep them neat and tidy!

Keep an eye on gurus and instructables for lots of lego related how-to’s coming v soon…

The biggest challenge in any creative process is to embrace failure. Lots of you teachers, lecturers and group leaders want to foster a hands-on creative process in your students. You want them working fast, failing fast, and learning even faster. Improving a design or invention with constant real-life testing.

We know that sugru is a great material for prototyping ideas and testing stuff out so we thought we would set up sugru PROJECTS, it’s a simple idea where we give second level schools, colleges and universities (anywhere in the world) free sugru to run great projects.

If you run a course just send us a project brief that uses sugru as a prototyping material and we will send you enough free sugru to run the project with your students.
We’re not quite sure what’s going to happen but we know its going to be exciting.

How to:
• Submit your brief on this handy google form by December 16, 2011.
• We’ll supply sugru to the best proposals we get
• You report back the results of your project, we publish the most interesting processes and inventions on the sugru blog
• You and your students get recognition for being kick-ass designers / inventors

To set the ball rolling, we set ourselves the challenge of inventing a way to roll an egg down the stairs without it breaking !!!

A few of you have sent us images of jazzed up toe caps on their Converse, so we got inspired to try it too!

We bought these shoes in a charity shop for £1.50 !!!! a quick hack later and they look super cute!

sugru properties that make this hack possible:

- bonds to the rubber used in converse
- is waterproof so will be fine in the rain and even a washing machine
- is flexible so will bend with your shoes
- can be mixed to to create custom colours

Use leftovers for other little jobs like making your zippers easier to pull

We’ve made a full step-by-step instructable for this project to show you how to get the best looking results – everyone will wonder where you got that really unusual colourway.

Well, you won’t need to merge with a fly at a molecular-genetic level while attempting a teleportation experiment to achieve this look.

Just a broken tea strainer, a pair of old glasses and some black sugru.

Full step-by-step Instructable here showing you how to make your own!

As far as we know, no-one was harmed in the making of this project. Although Ben and Suki did both become incredibly scary for a brief time, they’re both looking perfectly normal working away at their desks now… hmm maybe a little toooo normal…