People bring us tons of broken umbrellas from the street. Some we fix, some we recycle into these bags, which we sell as a fundraiser. They are $25, all of which helps us pay for the space we use. We will mail your bag to you for $2, or you can come pick it up.
Every bag is different, but they all have fixer’s patches covering the hole which used to be the center of the umbrella. And they all have stuff sacks in the lining, so you can bundle up the bag until you need it for your groceries, interesting literature someone gave you on the street, wild foods harvested from the park, etc.
Scroll down to see the bags we currently have in stock.

Here is bag #1. It has white cotton lining.

Bag #2 is maroon with red lining.

Bag #5 is black with black lining.

Umbrella Bag #

John Ciferni, CEO of Tarzian Hardware, has teamed up with the Fixers’ Collective to offer workshops  at Proteus Gowanus for  learning specific skills. Tonight, people brought in objects to turn into lamps under the tutelage of John and Joe from Tarzian. No cameras on hand but as we speak a lamp is being made from the following objects: a cheese grater, a shoe, a soda bottle, a mason jar, an old peeling baluster from a staircase and a salad spinner. Some people brought in existing lamps that needed fixing too.

John from Tarzian will conduct these classes for Fixers from time to time and we are extremely happy about this. We think John is brilliant and that everyone who wants to be a genuine Fixer should always shop at Tarzian for hardware etc. Meanwhile,  the Fixers Collective’s usual improvisational mending and fixing sessions continue to meet every Thursday night from 6 — 9 at Proteus Gowanus.

Maya made us a stuffable tote-bag from recycled umbrella fabric. These can be really useful, because they are really sturdy, and also really easy to carry around.

What’s even better, is that she left us the pattern - so we can make more! If you see any broken umbrellas lying around - pick em up and bring them to Fixers! We know how to fix them AND recycle them!

Clock

My father’s 1942 clock stopped working in 1987, so I brought it into the Fixer’s Collective tonight.

We didn’t plug it in first–we probably should have tested it first–so
we’ll never be able to say whether taking the wires apart and
retwisting them fixed it or not.  But that’s what we did, and lo and
behold when I plugged it in, it worked!!  Either it was retwisting the
wires that did it, or else the shaking around in my backpack when
bringing it in.  The fix will remain mysterious, but the outcome is
very satisfying!

ToolBelt

We’ve been thinking about putting together some Fixers’ merch for a while now. Here you can see Jane stitching a together a toolbelt. The toolbelt has a beautiful wrench patch on the front and is made from recycled canvas! It’s also for sale!

Bike

The right crank arm - attached to pedal -  was loose.

This is probably because the rectangular interface between crank and bottom bracket spindle (axle) has worn at some corners.

Temporarily and successfully fixed by tightening the bolt that goes through crank and axle.  Much information gleaned from www.bikewebsite.com.

Coffee Grinder

Tammy bought a coffee grinder last week and when the knob on the crank handle broke — true to her fixer nature — Tammy set about thinking how to fix it ( it somehow didn’t occur to her to take it back to the store). We could have tried to reattach the original knob, but we found an object that we thought might be even better — a wooden handle orphaned from its jump rope!

Namit’s ceiling fan ran only on one slow speed so he took off the blades and brought it to the Fixers. The switch was cracked and the wire displaced. Jan and Namit soldered the wire back into place and when they put the fan back together again, they proudly announced: “We’ve fixed it to the point where nothing works.”  Then they figured out which wires were hot and which neutral and with that breakthrough, Namit now has a fan which runs on three speeds! 

Since the Fixers have had some umbrella breakthroughs in the past, Sandy brought in her beautiful old umbrella to see if she could fix the broken spoke. She used parts of old umbrellas, a nail and wire to restore the rib. Now she can open and close the umbrella and gets a full canopy when opened.  

Evan’s canvas boot was separating from its rubber sole, revealing layers of canvas material in the upper with rubber sole intact. He’s going to work on it at home. We’ll ask him how he did next week.  

Ann is new to the Fixers, brought in a tensor reading lamp with a broken hinge at the base. Tony is grinding it with a drummel cutting disk. Don’t know why. 

Meanwhile, David and others spent some time mending the giant American flag. It will be done someday.

This was one of our best fixes to date. James et al worked on Tammy’s split Peruvian meat plate. We initially thought that dowels and glue would be the best solution, but we had neither dowels nor glue!

So instead, we took apart some brass hinges and used them to fasten one side of the plate to the other. You can’t see them here, but you can see the delicate inlays James carved, so the bottom of Tammy’s plate would remain flat.

Sarah brought in a broken umbrella. We weren’t able to fix it this week, because we didn’t have the appropriate parts.

But we learned a lot about how umbrellas are made by taking her umbrella apart. Once we took off the fabric, we were able to see the mechanism more clearly.

Stay tuned for more umbrella developments.

Here, Jacob and Aurora are both working on mending projects.