The best things are worth waiting for!
If you pre-ordered a Wonder then you a part of a very special group of people who have put their belief in the creation of something completely unique - and in doing so have demonstrated extraordinary patience in a creative process that has shown a relentless pursuit of quality against the back drop of extraordinary challenges for a micro business like us.
It's a pleasure to be finally shipping products and we are proud to share these videos from customers who have received their Wonders.
Kelly is a Qigong teacher who runs a spiritual store in Pittsburgh. Wonder is now a centerpiece in her space.
Raj is a Kundalini Yoga teacher and has generously made this 1 hour video of Wonder for meditation.
Jo has welcomed Wonder into her home in Northumbria.
Jamie Oliver is a huge fan of Tom's work and has cleverly concealed his Wonder behind a stack of books.
Please tag @tomlawton and @bepliftednow on instagram if you share your Wonder.
We simply love to see where they go.
]]>At long last, Wonders are now being delivered to homes all around the world.
I've been head down building in my workshop and have just come up for air.
The journey has been both challenging and rewarding with many valuable learning experiences gained along the way - as you would expect making something so innovative. It hasn't been easy and I am eternally grateful for everyone's patience.
The real innovation with Wonder is the spiral - I am so proud of the geometric accuracy we have been able to achieve, which is intrinsic to Wonder's illusionary effect.
We use a fusion of processes that bring advanced manufacturing and hand finished artistry to create a shape that's never been made before.
To achieve this I have been supported by a number of world class British suppliers who share my commitment to delivering, to the best of their ability, an exceptional art piece.
It's unique.
It's rare... and it's just got rarer.
When I set out on this course we comfortably forecasted that our production yield would be 100 pieces per month, giving us our annual volume of 1,000 pieces.
Because of the technical complexities involved in the metalisation process, one of my suppliers has had to review their capacity to deliver and we will now only be able to complete ten pieces per week, totalling 500 pieces per year.
Consequentially, I have been forced to revise my production schedule accordingly.
I know that this will be of great disappointment to many people but I can assure you that nothing about the product is compromised and everything else is lined up ready to go.
It is only the special finishing of the spirals that we are waiting for and we are beholden to one global supplier for this. I am sorry there is nothing I can do to speed this up.
I do want to point out some of the subtle variations between finished spirals due to our unique methods of production. Sometimes, the spirals may have small markings, or surface finish inconsistencies that make each piece completely original. These are not flaws, but the tell tale signature of a very rare thing.
Wonder is designed to be viewed in motion, from a few metres away, best sat somewhere comfortable, to enjoy its peaceful, otherworldly and relaxing effect.
I am pleased to share these initial responses from customers who have already received their Wonders.
Here's a little video from a customer called Pablo who recently received his Wonder.
For anyone who is new to my work, I'd love for you to watch the short documentary below about my last creation, Uplift.
Thanks for your continued support and understanding.
All the best,
Tom
The Uplift Story from Tom Lawton on Vimeo.
Beyond the spiral itself Wonder has been designed and manufactured without compromise. Each final unit is hand assembled in my workshop in Malmesbury, Wiltshire.
Over the course of the last two years I have built up a network of specialist manufacturers who have come together like an orchestra to deliver bespoke components made to my exacting standards and design.
This has not been easy work, infact, it's been among the most difficult projects of my professional life. Not because of the technical feasibility - although the spiral took dozens of prototypes and experiments to make perfect - but because of the backdrop of the world right now. Product development is always difficult, but doing so in the wake of a pandemic with global shortages, delays and supply line inconsistencies has given me plenty to navigate.
I run a small business and have a great reputation but don't have influence or economies of scale that bring cost benefits to my practice. Every relationship has been nurtured from sctratch, from the factory floor to the MD. I shake hands with everyone, understand the process, business strengths and limitations and am relishing bringing this all together.
I bought an old British Gas van that I marked with a pegasus, which can be seen darting about the English countryside - collecting samples, delivering parts, shipping prototypes and now almost ready to shift finished product.
As a result of relentless and sometimes obsessive effort, nothing has been compromised, but the first batch production has been delayed by a few months. This was unavoidable unfortunately despite all attempts to mitigate the production issues. However, while we have stalled a couple of times with poor suppliers, we've moved on and have been incredibly well supported through the process by our primary manufacturers and equally encouraged by our incredibly patient customers.
Originally, we intended to ship Wonder in December 2022. But in reality that has slipped to March 2023. A frustration for many early customers (many of whom pre-ordered Wonder when the project live in March 2022) but when it comes to delivery - everyone is on side that only excellence will do.
The compound issues that have created this delay come down to two things.
1. I did not anticipate some of the unwanted noise that the system would make. Going from prototype to production is always tricky but I did not expect the final system to have perfect cosmetics and imperfect acoustics, compared to the prototype which was close to silent.
This required a two-stage engineering solution to dampen the sound using both an open cell foam to absorb high frequencies and a rubber deadening mat to absorb low freqency sound and vibration. We got the unwanted noise down to below the threshhold of human hearing.
2. Having solved the acoustic problem above by Christmas 2022 I thought that I would be able to immediately progress and assemble the first 100 pieces by hand but in reality, to achieve the precision build and tolerances we need for a flawless product I had to do the metal work and bearing assembly in the machine shop of our casting manufacturer.
For them to do this in house, we needed to revisit the design and production assembly method for a couple of integral parts. All the castings have been made since December and are perfect but basically, the mechanical design, the way the turntable design comes together, while looking brilliant, introduced a little more torque into the turntable, which in turn made the motor work harder and that made it noisier, again - taking me back to problem 1.
So, frustrated I have not been able to complete assembly and begin to ship product but without panicing I have quickly worked to resolve all build issues and every turntable is now assembled by our factory with precision jigs and fixtures. This gives us excellent quality control from the get go.
This has been an important process to go through and one I did not anticipate a year ago. The result is that each Wonder is extraordinary - from the quality of the push button, the balance of the turntable, the poise of the sculpture to the surface finish of the die cast aluminium enclosure, the warranty label and the little rubber feet. It all comes together like a song.
Wonder looks and feels like a high end instrument - it's a quality piece of hardware. Having now seen our final samples (and having absorbed 12 months of inflated costs) we have immediately re-listed Wonder with a pre-order sales price of £1,500 and to be honest, it's easily worth double that.
So, what a lot of fuss creating something so simple... all you do is plug it in to your USB, turn it on and hey presto, it slowly whirls around... well, it's not quite that simple.
The Spirals
Individually fabricated using a blend of advanced manufacturing with artisinal craftsmanship to finish, each spiral takes around 7 days to produce and we make them in batches of 25. This limits our production capacity and will prevent this from ever being a mass produced design object.
The spirals start as laser accurate forms with incredibly high precision, are hand finished and treated in a special coating which allows us to organically grow a copper skin on them. That process alone takes 48 hours and happens in stages so that the finish is as flawless as we can make it. The geometry is perfect and has to be for the spiral illusion to take its effect but on close inspection there are subtle differences in the finish of every spiral and any imperfections in finish are the characteristc result of a hand held processes. That said, the first fingerprint to touch each spiral will belong to the person who ordered it.
When ready each spiral is then electrophoretically lacquered so that it remains bright and will not tarnish, only ever needing to be cleaned with a dry cloth, which is provided in the box.
These processes take the fabrication from Hemel Hempstead, to Newport Pagnell, up to Wolverhamption and back down to Malmesbury where they are securely fitted into the turntable.
The whole spiral fabricration process was tested and developed two years ago before the project went live.
The Turntable
It was important that we provided a turntable for Wonder that matched the quality of the spiral. Immediately we wanted a die cast alumuinium enclosure with a matt black powder coated finish, more akin to a piece of hi-fi equipment than anything we had ever seen used for a moving sculpture. So we turned to a UK casting specialist in Andover, Hampshire who we worked with to production engineer the design.
Our tooling was made in Italy last summer where the parts are cast. They are finished in Andover and are now assembled with the complete mechanical design and precision bearing system.
We've managed to achieve a 0.65mm gap in the turntable with perfect concentricity and planar movement so that it the right lighting Wonder appears to float on it's own.
The push button is bespokely manufactured too, this time CNC machining with a powder coated finish to give a subtle, concave indentation that feels good to touch.
The Mechanics
All made from stainless steel or aluminium - waterjet cut and machined to specification. Assembled with premium branded bearings and industry standard fixtures. Wonder is built to perform and made to last.
The Screws
While most screws, washers and other sundries are off the shelf we had to use a very special screw to secure the spiral in place and this comes from a specialist Father & Son screw supplier in Buckinghamshire.
The Motor
Wonder is driven by a low power 5v motor using a worm and wheel design, which means it can be powered by USB and doesn't need any special set up when it arrives e.g. it's good to ship.
You can plug it in where you like - with a mains adapter, in your laptop, battery pack or solar powered USB array.
The motor can be replaced without the need for soldering or specialist tools so that Wonder can be maintained to work for a very long time.
The motor is a custom design and is the only component that is made in China. We took delivery of our first 500 motors last summer anticipating there might be delays with their supply, there wasn't.
The motor sits in a UK made cradle, which seats it in position with the turntable mechanism by being screwed to the main housing.
The Electronics
Designed and manufactured in Bristol our custom PCB design neatly drives the motor and regulates the speed at a steady 16rpm. It also features a digital clutch that will stop the motor in case the spiral is stopped and prevent either motor or spiral being damaged.
The Packaging
It's so lovely and we were lucky to work closely with a brillant cardboard engineer at a packaging company in Melksham, Wiltshire.
After some careful thought I had a clear picture of what I wanted the packaging to be. Wonder feels alive and I think that some people are going to enjoy showing it off. When they do I wanted them to be able to carry it like a carriage, in the way you would carefully take a pet to the vets. So the box design comprises of an inner and outer carton, both come together to create a striking, characterful and protective packaging solution. Take a look at the unboxing below.
This is all made down the road in Wiltshire.
Of course, it's all well being functional and pretty but will it survive the wrath of the careless courier. We had to test it and to be extra sure that every unit arrives in perfect condiiton we will ship each Wonder box in an extra outer protective carton encasing the contents with biodegradeable filler.
The Extras
The award winning poet and illustrator Jo Tilsley has helped us to visualise Wonder in a way that gives it a timeless two dimensional aesthetic. Some of these illustrations we have used in the packaging and some we have used in a few special prints we are including with each unit.
These extras comprise of:
All our printing is done locally with fine art digital printers in Corsham, Wiltshire.
Me and My Team
This leaves me to talk a little about myself and my team.
Things have moved on, while I am completely hands on with every aspect of this build - and will be across the first 1,000 pieces - I have started to expand my team. So, I have help and I will quickly recruit more once we get going.
I'm joined on the sofa by Nick, my business partner and Nandhit my design assistant and sitting on the arm is Verity - quite simply, our girl Wonder. I will tell you more about each of them in future blogs.
You can see in the photo there are a few spaces vacant so feel free to reach out to us if you're local and want to get stuck in.
We work across two sites, my original studio off Malmesbury high street where we assemble the motor, spiral and acoustic dampening and test every Wonder. Then, a mile down the road at Cowbridge Farm from where we package and get them ready to ship. The next stage is collection by our fulfillment partners in Swindon, Wiltshire who send them off by trackable delivery worldwide.
It's a lot of work but it's a lot of fun and this is what it takes to bring something completely new and utterly extraordinary into the world.
Wonder is a masterpiece and I am proud to have done justice to the design by being such a stickler for detail.
If you ordered Wonder at the beginning - thanks so much for your patience - this effort is for you. If you're new to the story, thanks for reading.
At the time of writing it is estimated that the first batch of Wonder's will begin to ship on 21st March. From there we will ship 25 units on a weekly basis and a full estimated schedule of all pre-order deliveries will be published here shortly.
Tom
]]>BABY WONDER IS NOW LIMITED TO 500 PIECES ANNUALLY
To give you complete clarity of our pre-order process this is the estimated schedule for Wonder production and delivery in 2023.
As of today's date we are at 420 pre-orders and a pre-order made today will ship in late February 2024.
Yes, this whole process has been more difficult than we anticipated but after suffering some delays we are getting back on track. Please read our blog post on 'Provenance of Wonder' to understand the full picture and why quality takes time.
Due to staff resourcing issues completely out of our control and due to the complex process of metalising each spiral, since May 2023 we are now only able to complete 10 units per week, which is our maximum yield.
The original 100 are our priority and will ship as a complete batch. The first 165 units will have shipped before the end of July. The next 180 units will ship before the first week of December in time for Christmas 2023.
The final 155 units will ship before 8th April 2024.
There is no guarantee that will will produce a second batch of Wonders so this run is limited to 500 pieces.
Orders are fulfilled on a first come first served basis and there is no way to jump the queue.
We give customers a 30 day window on pre-order to cancel their order and we do understand that sometimes circumstances change - so please just get in touch if you run into financial difficulties.
All enquiries about your order are best sent to verity@beuplifted.co.uk - please try and avoid reaching out to me on DM's via social media as I just can't keep on top of all communications.
You can keep up to date with the project on my instagram where I post occasional behind the scenes updates.
Our fulfillment partners are CSM Logistics who will provide you with all tracking info once your order is ready to ship.
All the best,
Tom
]]>
Jo Tilsley reached out to me last spring like an old friend talking in a language that felt Wonder completely and then she wrote this poem, which immediately reads like a sacred script.
I never wanted to find these words myself so it's profound that someone else came to me with them - I trusted that would be the way.
We enjoyed chatting at length before she then set on a course to imagine some special and key visual elements for Wonder's packaging. The cosmic alignment symbol below which illustrates the notion, as above, so below - because Wonder is the same shape from above and below and Jo's art traces Wonder's form with a timeless and handcrafted aesthetic.
Then, the comet, coming to earth, just in time, which I wanted on the side of every box as Wonder lands in homes all around the globe.
We are thrilled to have worked with her on these special additions.
'My graphics on a gold-foiled print for WONDER. The stars dancing about WONDER form the constellation Sagittarius. The reason I chose Sagittarius is this: In the poem I wrote, I had included the concept of the alchemical transmutation of base metals such as Lead and Mercury into Gold. Mercury seemed the best fit for WONDER, because of the way it flows. Mercury is also a Planet - but there are no celestial bodies named for Lead. Whilst planets aren't themseves part of constellations, they do pass through the different zodiacal constellations during the year; and on the 29th Jan 2022, the date of the 'Renaissance of Wonder' at Malmesbury Abbey, which could be seen as its birthday, Mercury was in Sagittarius. Happily, this constellation proved to be a perfect fit for the graphic.'
You can discover more about Jo and her work here at Quantum Press.
]]>The extraordinary magician, youtuber and curator of unusual objects, Chris Ramsay fell in love with Wonder through lockdown and has comissioned a big one like the abbey's. Please take a look at this beautiful documentary he made.
We didn't know each other before Chris became a fan of Uplift and Wonder was just a concept. It was crazy because I gave him no instruction or rules of what to do or say about Wonder, just trust that he'd make something amazing - and he did. It was lovely to chat a little about its evolution.
Thanks for taking care of Wonder Chris.
]]>
For those who aren’t familiar, Malmesbury is an enchanting market town steeped in history and for me, it’s a huge source of my inspiration and creativity.
It’s home to the oldest hotel in England as well as a 12th century medieval Abbey, an original Market Cross and a bustling high street. The town has stolen my heart and as a thank you, I’d like to gift it my latest creation, Wonder.
Here’s my love letter to Malmesbury…
Dear Malmesbury,
I, like many people, moved to Malmesbury with every intention of staying for a few years before moving on in life's meandering way.
But here I am, seventeen years later with my family, my home, my friends, my business and, like everyone else who's lived here through the klast year, my whole world. I love this town and its people.
This is a love letter to you, to the Abbey and to the whole community for being here for me and my family for so long, and especially through this past year.
I have a gift for you and want to bring Wonder to Malmesbury Abbey, but I am going to need your help.
Wonder is a meditative moving sculpture and is the pinnacle of my creative abilities.
It has been designed to evoke a feeling of deep relaxation and, with the blessing of the Abbey and as a gift to the people of Malmesbury, we would like to make a permanent, full scale installation of it here in the heart of the town, inside the Abbey for all to freely visit and enjoy. To create a space for relaxation, meditation and contemplation. To inspire wonder.
I am launching a crowd funding campaign today to build a one-off Wonder that will be designed to last 100 years and will be owned by the town and sited in the Abbey. It is my hope that we can reach the target before the end of March and make Wonder at Malmesbury Abbey a reality later in the Spring when lockdown has hopefully passed and the Abbey is open again.
Wonder if the most beautiful thing I have ever made and it would be an honour for it to start it's life here, in the town where it was created.
Please spread the world and help me to make this happen.
It will be a blessing for the Abbey, the people and for Wonder.
All my love
Tom
#ALoveLetterToMalmesbury
For more information visit www.tomlawton.com/wonder.
]]>Uplift started life as a limited edition object d'art and has since evolved into a classic design piece, which hopes to one day become an heir loom in your future space, spreading it's uplifting presence for as long as the sun shines.
We hope it's something that you can be proud to show to your grandkids, even if you're currently in your twenties.
In 2016, it's creator, Tom Lawton wanted to make the most beautiful thing he could imagine and as wisdom teaches us, beauty is much more than skin deep.
To make this true Tom and his team have taken every possible step to ensure that the product is made and assembled in the most environmentally responsible way possible. We are still making them in small batches, which means that Tom completes final assembly and testing of every unit himself, though as the business gains traction we hope to expand our team through 2021.
The spiral is made from waste fishing nets and requires enormous effort & dedication to produce. The nets are sourced from the Hake Fisheries in Newlyn, Cornwall before they go to landfill.
We don't just use any nets - in order to achieve the beautiful aquamarine translucency of the spiral, the nets have to be especially selected and sorted into colour matched batches before they are industrially purified to remove any contaminants. After a life at sea, this isn't a quick process and results in a material that costs over 20 x the price of a comparative virgin nylon. But, for each kg of waste nets that we use, we save 9.9kg of Co2-eq emissions - so we think it's worthwhile to make the effort and as you can see - the result is exquisite - we've never seen such a refined use of a waste material and are proud to be a leading light in regenerative design.
Of course, the product isn't perfect and everything has a footprint of some sort. We're working to establish a more responsible means of producing our small electronics system and sourcing the magnets. But the design of each of these components has been considered so that their life span is maximised to increase Uplift's working life. The material for each component has been selected to have the best fitness for purpose and that pupose is to perform, as intended, for as long as possible.
The design is also modular, which means that if anything ever goes wrong or gets damaged, we will be able to replace it. This is our commitment to you but also yours to Uplift as we do not warrant components beyond their original workmanship and quality but instead provide you with a way of maintaining your Uplift forever.
The packaging also reflects this commitment to quality. It's so important to us that your experience is uplifting from the moment you place an order to the many moments you will enjoy this product. The day that it arrives is special and we've constructed a packaging experience to celebrate this. The card is recycled and there's no packaging excess but it's one heck of an un-boxing experience that has been proven to arrive with you in perfect condition.
Just look at the experience enjoyed by You Tube sensation Chris Ramsay, who was not approached by us for this excellent review, but for who owning an uplift has lifted the stage presence of even his high quality content.
If you're frustrated that Uplift isn't priced for you then maybe it's time to question what you expect - we've simply done our best and are only interested in the pursuit of excellence. We'd love for the price to be more accessible but not at the sacrifice of quality. That will come as our volumes increase, so if it's not for you now then please stay in touch and someday soon we might have a version that is.
We're a small company building our foundations through a global pandemic. We're not interested in making things cheaply and we don't have the buying power of a big business. But we are honest and we are here at your service. Thus, Uplift is priced intelligently.
Tom is a an award winning designer with a specialism in long lasting design, sustainable design practice and technology for good. He was winner of the Green Dot Awards (Los Angeles) and the Sustainable Design Awards (London Design Week) and continues to explore boundaries of regenerative and responsible design practice, not because it's the right thing to do but because this is the way.
]]>Where to start? A huge thank you to all of you really! With your support and feedback we're ending the year on a real high having sold out completely due to popular demand, which is a lovely place to be.
Of course, we're not stopping here and should have our next batch ready to ship in late January 2021.
We're offering 10% OFF for every pre-order until then and UK customers will get a FREE Uplift 2.0 flipbook right away.
Here's a quick wrap up of the year from me.
Which leaves me to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Winter Solstice and a Happy New Year. We've got a range of new colours planned for the new year as well as something completely new to show you so please sign up to our newsletter below to be the first to know when it's ready to be unveiled.
If you do pre-order an Uplift 2.0 and we're offering different colour options at the end of January you will be free to make a decision about colour then.
With warmet regards from me and the team at Uplifting Products.
Tom
PS. Do keep sharing your Uplift pictures. We love seeing them in their new homes and love hearing stories of how they keep you uplifted. We'll be sharing special news shortly about where some of them have ended up living #beuplifted
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1. Setting up your Uplift straight out of the box
2. Fine-tuning your Uplift for best performance in the lowest light
NOTE: The videos above were filming in Southern England in mid October - performance will diminish a little as we get closer to winter and it will improve again in the spring. We cannot guarantee what results you will have in your country and these tips serve to allow you to get the most out of yours - performance will varying due to many envirnmental conditions.
OFFICE WORKERS AWARE! Many companies have UV filters on the windows (you might not even notice them) and this will stop a lot of the sun's energy reaching your Uplift. Be sure this isn't what's affecting yours!
FURTHER HELP! If you're experiencing a problem that's not addressed here then please reach out to us via the Customer Support pop-up (bottom right) and we'll get back to you just as soon as we can!
]]>
I have something exciting to share.
I am so pleased to have spent a day this week in the company of my good friend Dr Paul Olding. Paul is a wonderful documentary film maker and he shadowed me as I went through my usual task of building and despatching Uplift's, while having a conversation about the motivation behind its creation.
I am so proud to tell this story and would love you to share it far and wide.
With warmest regards
Tom
]]>
I think I someone told me about glories when I was a child. They seemed mytical until I experienced one from a plane on the way home from a trip to China.
I created this design for my sister-in-law Michaela and her husband Jimmy when they got married ten years ago... I have been told that guests to their home keep asking where they can get a copy.
Until now, it's never been available to purchase but given the popular interest in rainbows since the pandemic I've decided to release it as a fine art print, exclusively available on this website.
Printed as a fine art poster measuring 28" x 40" using a leading-on demand print service, which means that wherever you are in the world, if you order the design, it will be printed locally before being carefully packaged and delivered to you.
]]>When you do, we'd love to invite you to share a video of it's final destination and join our amabassadors in spreading the love.
The world's never been so fraught with stress and we really think it helps when we show each other that we're ok, we're relaxed and we feel good. We want this page to be a collection of uplifting inspiration.
Once we've got up to speed with production and despatch we're planning a friday freebie giveaway and will be looking to our ambassadors to share with us who they'd most like to uplift! It could be a friend or family or just someone who you think needs a little boost.
Our first ambassador is the very lovely Suzi Perry who has been sharing heart warming and very uplifting videos all through lockdown from her home in Southern France.
Suzi has been a long time supporter of my work so I felt that she should be honoured in receiving one of the first. Needless to say, she absolutely loves it.
We'll be featuring your videos here so please get in touch once your Uplift has safely arrived and we'll begin rolling out the gallery.
All the best
Tom
]]>
We've got exciting news!
The first ten samples have been manufactured and assembled - and have been sent out to a small test group, including one of you - and the feedback is A-OK.
We are so thrilled with the result we can't wait to ship out your pre-order.
Here's a preview of what you'll get in the box.
Final assembly is scheduled to take place in the first two weeks of August and we will be shipping worldwide towards the middle-end of that month.
Thanks so much for your patience to date - there has been a number of obvious and understandable delays - given the stress most of us have experienced over the past few months we can't wait to give you an Uplift!
Here's an uplifting tale!
One of our early backers Georgia wrote to me a couple of months ago, patiently expressing her desire to receive her order ASAP, which I was unable to fulfill until ten days ago. We weren't planning or able to jump anyone up the queue but the team agreed this felt like a good home for the first ever Uplift 2.0 - and we like feedback from you the most!
Georgia wanted me to share her story to express her thanks.
Her wonderful Dad was in hospital for many weeks, he caught Covid and was in ICU on a ventillator for 35 days and very nearly lost his fight. The family witnessed a true miracle and his return home came close to his birthday. They wanted to create the most uplifting space on his return and knew Uplift would make a perfect welcome home, happy birthday and father's day gift.
I delivered the product to the family in person to make sure it was safely received.
"Oh wow, that's just fabulous! - Dad was totally blown away with his Uplift. He loves how unique it is, it's got pride of place on the drinks cabinet in the full length glass window of the dining room. It's just the most perfect gift for him. Here's me and the main man yesterday, such a wonderful day as we had originally planned his memorial service to be on his birthday, so having him home was surreal and special. Infact, you can just make out Uplift in the background.
Thank you so much, I am so very grateful. It was absolutely amazing to have it for him. You are wonderful x" - Georgia
It's so lovely to have feedback like this and Georgia kindly sent me this video of Uplift doing it's thing with her Dad at home every day.
While we'd love to be able to meet every request for an early product like this - it's simply not possible as this was a sample from our first batch of ten. But the remaining 990 units will be ready soon - shipping in a month and I thought you'd like to see where the first test unit went.
Up, up and away!
Tom
]]>As of today, Monday 4th May 2020 - we, Uplifting Products are proudly partners with Penryn based charity, The Sea Sanctuary, to support those in need of mental health support. A percentage of every Uplift 2.0 sold on our website here will go towards funding those who need financial help accessing the charity’s services.
Good for our minds, good for our planet
Uplift 2.0 is the latest creation from British inventor, TV personality and Founder of Uplifting Products, Tom Lawton.
Uplift 2.0 is a mesmerising, spiralling sculpture - powered by the sun, it generates a visually soothing motion designed to help you relax and unwind. The progressive new design is inspired by the sea’s translucent colour and hypnotic motion of the waves. Recycled fishing nets from local Cornish Hake Fisheries form the spiral’s structure and make the aquamarine colour.
Tom Lawton comments, ‘Inspired by the ocean, Uplift 2.0 inspires you to unwind, relax, and find a meditative moment of calm in everyday life. There’s a symbiosis between Uplift 2.0 and the charity, it’s a natural fit’.
The Sea Sanctuary is a unique mental health and wellbeing charity rooted in the concept of ‘blue health’. Its programmes rely on the environment and use techniques thought to be the first of their kind in the world. They use a combination of sail training, marine activities and evidence-based therapies to help children and adults who are struggling with issues such as stress, anxiety, depression, and a whole range of mental and emotional health problems.
"Based on my knowledge of this little gem of wellbeing, it will help us slide, effortlessly, into a place of relaxation and remind us to be in the ‘here and now’. As someone who has a long-standing and deep passion for the sea, if I could open my house up and invite it in, I surely would. To my mind, this is the next best thing. It seems, ostensibly, to capture the very essence of the sea; gentle, calming, blue and dreamy. I am looking forward to trialling it soon and thank Uplifting Products for their kind financial support which will help us to continue helping some of the most vulnerable people in society; those afflicted with mental ill health." - Joe Sabien, Founder of The Sea Sanctuary
Tom Lawton continues, “The Sea Sanctuary provide invaluable support to vulnerable people via their unique concept of ‘blue health’. What they do is truly remarkable and we’re very proud to be supporting them.”
For every Uplift 2.0 sold on beuplifted.co.uk, £10 will be donated to the charity and go into the ‘Be Uplifted Bursary’ to aid those seeking finical support in order to access the charity’s services.
For more information visit https://seasanctuary.org.uk/
]]>If you don't, he is the most wonderful man and is something of a national treasure here in the UK.
In the dead of lockdown I noticed he was having a challengeing time so after a little digging I arranged to have an original Uplift delivered to him. Being a man of the cloth I thought he'd appreciate receiving this gift on Easter Sunday, so I packed it up on Good Friday and sent the special package on its way.
I didn't really expect to hear back in the form of public declaration but was thrilled when he tweeted this a month later.
Richard also made the comment - "Tom, I love it. It’s totally beguiling!"
Thanks Richard! We love it too.
I'm sure you also all know Derren Brown, the highly perceptive, wonderful and thoroughly entertaining, self-described mentalist.
Well, guess how he's staying relaxed through lockdown?
I'm sure he has numerous methods but we were thrilled to discover today that one of those ways is with his Uplift.
Bless you for sharing this message with your followers Derren on instagram.
"I have this lovely kinetic sculpture by @tomlawton called Uplift. It's all solar and sort of uplifts all day. Not so much at night. Just in case you need a little Uplift."
We love you Derren are only to pleased to be of service.
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We've been stuck at home for a couple of weeks now and Easter is fast upon us. With the prospect of bad weather and everyone being couped up indoors, I've been wondering what I can do to be prepared and help you keep the kids entertained.
I love creative projects so have come up with an adhoc invention I call the Egg Wizard. I'd just love you to feel inspired and have a go at making one. I promise you, you and your kids will love building and then using it. The results are fantastic and we haven't even started trying spirals yet so I can't wait to see what you do!
It really isn't too difficult to put together and you probably have everything you need at home already. Just take a look at the video above, which we filmed at home last weekend.
All you need is:
I want to inspire kids that you don't always have to go to the shops to buy toys and making your own can be both rewarding and fun, so I hope the video above explains in enough detail how to go about making your own Egg Wizard. I'd love to see your results, so please tag me on social media with #eggwizard
I'm on instagram, twitter and facebook.
If it's popular, I will see if I can invent something else creative for you to do with kids for free, so please share this page and give me feedback. Of course, my video is just a guide and if you don't have all the parts just use your imagination and improvise it, but that's half the fun.
It was actually quite trickly to do this right, the egg wobbled a lot because I'd made it run on a track previously until I worked out how to balance it on four points around its symmetrical axis.
Below are some close-ups of the final thing. Good luck!
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We wish we could magic things faster but are experiencing all the same challenges you are right now. However, our spirits are high, we are focussing on the important things and feel reassured in our vision for a more natural, sustainable, regenerative... and relaxing world.
Production is still on track for delivery in June, but we do know to expect the unexpected and will endeavour to keep you informed of any changes to our schedule.
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We launched these on Kickstarter in December 2019 and raised 300% over our target which is a lovely verification of both the new design and a growing demand for physical relaxation aids.
Together with the support of one of our original Uplift customers Nick who wanted to get involved and help us grow the business we founded Uplifting Products Ltd and our mission is to lift the spirits of a stressed out world.
Here I am chatting about Uplift 2.0.
Once again, it was wonderful to be featured by Calm.com who not only wrote another blog post about Uplift 2.0 but devoted all their social media channels to promoting our launch. Talking about uplifting support. Wow! Thanks!
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It was on the beach that we found what we were looking for - the solution was staring us in the face - marine plastic!
Inspired by the colour, translucency and potential transformation of this wasteful and hazardous material we began to research how we might be able to utilise it for our spirals. It seemed a pipe dream that this would be possible as we couldn't find any other industrially processed, purified use of waste fishing nets anywhere in the world - but we were excited by the challenge.
We put out a call to industry and after conducting a feasibility study on the material with our UK injection moulding partner in Shropshire, we established a partnership with award-winning waste material processing start-up, 'Fishy Filaments' of Newlyn, Cornwall.
Fishy Filaments are based within metres of the MSC approved Hake Fisheries in Cornwall with whom them have a strategic relationship to process and purify waste fishing nets which are at end of life and would otherwise go to landfill.
Fishy Filaments then supply the material to us as pure Nylon 6 in a pellet form for injection moulding. We've added a little virgin Nylon 6 to tweak the colour but the result is a material that's 100% recycleable and is made from 98% waste fishing nets.
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We needed to iron out some mechanical issues that allowed the design to be mass produced, improve the reliability of the system and reduce the possibility of the glass breaking - so we completely redesigned it from scratch which took the product from being an object d'art to being a classic design piece.
In doing this we looked at alternative materials to manufacture the spiral from and began experimenting with paper and 100% post-consumer waste plastic like the orange example featured, which is 3D printed.
The first version I made with recycled plastic bottles was spotted on instagram by Jamie Oliver who was going through a tough time with his restaurant business so I sent it to him. It now sits proudly on his son Buddy's windowsill. This prototype features the original Uplift mechanism.
Here's my video to Jamie and Buddy showing them how to set it up.
As this one had proved popular I gifted another one to author Matt Haig for his birthday. He was also smitten with the brightly coloured design, which now sits in his kitchen.
While we loved the fun colour of 3D printing like this it's still a very time consuming business and compared to to the original Uplift, the cosmetic finish felt a little less refined. So we continued our pursuit of the right material and colour.
It was then that I asked you, our audience what you most wanted to see and I posted this picture on my social media. The result was unanimous, you wanted something blue, semi-translucent and reminiscent of ocean waves.
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The reponse to Uplift has been incredible - from our worldwide backers of course - and also from fans of the project, including:
With a few celebrity endorsements too we're feeling well loved.
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It was an extraordinary feat of effort that we managed to produce all the units and overcome a million obstacles - each one individually precision tuned like an engine - and we shipped them worldwide in December 2018.
While I had the herculean task of assembling all of the wings, from over 22,000 individually cut and finished pieces of walnut, I am thankful for the few friends and family who came to my side and supported us in such a monumental task.
We learned so many lessons and moreso, there was a lot of love out there for Uplift!
But to be honest with you, the experience nearly broke me (and Ben). But we carried on.
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Gran's feedback was essential in helping me fine tuning the speed of the rotation so that it was both calming and subtley invigorating - as if it had a gentle but unyielding life force of its own.
The television seemed to cause her stress and due to the frequent feeling of loneliness, she could get easily bored and despite being in good care she was often in isolation. It was clear that Uplift had a calming and uplifting effect on her - I promised to make her one and was waiting for more glass to arrive. Sadly she passed away before I had the chance to give it to her and in a way I have continued the project in the memory of her.
Once I had finished with the master prototype I passed it on to my friend Chris who was suffering with a critical illness and it stayed on his bedside until he sadly passed away in 2019. The prototype (pictured above with Gran) remains with Chris's wife at his home in Malmesbury where it's still turning.
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At the time the UK was experiencing a huge wave of pessimism around the EU referendum and, fuelled with a desire to lift people's spirits, we thought we'd try to produce something uplifting that we could manufacture and assemble by hand here in Britain and try to inspire a positive vision with an environmentally responsible product that's good for your mind.
A spiralling sculpture was the obvious way to express this sentiment and so we began working on a design. It was when I bought an early prototype home and my wife Charlie became captivated by it that I knew there was something special in this mesmerising little creation.
Charlie's reaction, having been hypnotised by it for fifteen minutes, was 'I've been thinking of absolutely nothing' - which I thought was a wonderful state of mind to be in as the device had clearly stilled the wheels of her mind after a busy day. So I was inspired to take the design a little further.
Our intention from the start was to produce a hand crafted, solar powered exquisite art piece. Something that could sit on a windowsill and work silently everyday whenever the sun was up. That would genuinely evoke a sense of calm, of non-thinking visually triggered tranquillity.
Three sketch books and a few dozen prototypes later we launched the original Uplift on Kickstarter made from glass, walnut, steel and brass - the resulting effect is exactly as we had hoped for - take a look in the video below.
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