Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jane ní Dhulchaointigh
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| Alma mater | Royal College of Art 2004 |
| Known for | Sugru |
'Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh (pronounced nee dool-quen-teekh) is an amazing Irish artist, designer, and inventor. She's famous for inventing Sugru, a special mouldable glue. Time magazine even called Sugru one of the world's best inventions! In 2018, she won a big prize, the European Inventor Award.
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Her Early Life and Education
Jane was born in Kilkenny, Ireland. She grew up on a farm, and she loved fixing things that were broken. This early experience helped her think about how to repair items.
She first studied sculpture. When she was 23, she moved to London. There, she studied product design at the Royal College of Art. This is where she got the idea for Sugru.
The Idea Behind Sugru
Jane wanted to create a mouldable material that could fix broken items easily. She experimented by mixing bathroom sealant with wood-dust powder. This created a bouncy ball that looked like wood. She finished her studies in 2004, ready to turn her idea into a real product.
Developing Sugru and Her Career
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In 2005, Jane teamed up with James Carrigan and Roger Ashby. Together, they started a company called FormFormForm. Their goal was to develop Sugru. Jane spent about 8,000 hours in the lab, working with scientists who specialized in silicone.
Getting Sugru Started
Jane showed an early version of Sugru at a festival called Electric Picnic. She also won a grant of £35,000 from Nesta. In 2008, the company ran out of money. But Jane and her team used social media and crowdfunding to raise enough funds. This money helped them buy machines, create packaging, and design a website.
They also secured £250,000 from Lacomp PLC in 2006. Finally, Sugru officially launched in December 2009. It was so popular that it sold out in just six hours! Famous websites like Boing Boing and Wired featured Sugru. Jane named Sugru after the Irish word súgradh, which means "play."
Sugru's Global Success
Today, Sugru is sold in over 6,000 stores around the world. In 2010, Time magazine named it one of the world's best inventions. Jane gave a Ted Talk at TEDxDublin in 2012, sharing her story.
In 2013, the London Design Festival named Jane the "Design Entrepreneur of the Year." She launched Sugru in B&Q stores across the UK and Ireland. She even used a YouTube video to tell customers about the product.
By 2013, Sugru had been used on all seven continents! Jane was also chosen by EY as one of their top entrepreneurs. She gave a keynote speech at 99U at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Her speech, "The Magic Is in The Process," talked about the six years it took to create Sugru.
New Ideas and Awards
Jane's company worked with Leon Paul, a fencing equipment maker, to create a special foil handle for fencers. In 2014, The Guardian newspaper called Sugru a "wonder material." By 2016, FormFormForm was earning about £3.6 million a year.
In 2017, Jane spoke at InspireFest. She estimated that Sugru had been used to fix more than ten million items! They also launched a "Family-Safe" version of Sugru, so children could use it too.
Jane won the 2018 European Inventor Award for Small and Medium Enterprises. She is the first Irish person to ever win this award! In 2018, her company was sold to Tesa for £7.6 million. Jane is also part of the Awesome Foundation. This group donates £1,000 to a different cool idea every month. Since 2023, she has been a director on the board of Common Knowledge, an Irish non-profit that helps build homes.
