Firewinderblog

Micro kit - first video

2009-12-02T11:49:00.001Z

The micro kit design finally sees production and it's looking really good - here's a link to our Vimeo channel where there's a short clip...

Can't wait to see how they'll look in the darkness, powered by the wind, and looking forward to building one myself.

Hoping to have them ready for Spring next year, would be ideal to have them ready for Earth Hour.

AURA - Seattle in the Spring

2009-11-20T22:11:00.002Z

AURA, Earth's first art and ecology light display happens in March 2010 in Seattle. This is the sort of event that we love to be a part of - inspirational eco-art.

11 artistic and ecology-related light installations located in 6 parks and 4 other Seattle sites and one of them is a fw installation. Brilliant and can't wait.

Aura runs for three nights, beginning with a grand opening on March 19th.

More to follow, visit their website here

Colours for 2010

2009-11-14T18:00:00.006Z

We've been thinking about colours for 2010 - we get asked quite often for different colours, sizes and shapes.

More to follow on sizes and shapes... We can't go crazy with 'any colour you like', but we are looking into it, so, here's a mock up Tom's put together with an original, and an electric pink / blue combo.

C&binet Forum

2009-10-29T13:48:00.005Z

Firewinder received an invite to be involved in an exhibition to showcase the best of British talent in the creative industries. This exhibition, curated by Wired UK editor David Rowan, is part of the c&binet forum.

C&binet forum is a meeting of creative and financial industry - c&binet was created by the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport to foster international dialogue about the creative economy.

Opened by the Prime Minister, and with some really impressive names there - essentially it's a bunch of the world's leading creative bods, all getting together to chat about how to enable creativity to get to market.

Tom was invited to attend the whole event and met some of the creative luminaries involved.

The list of David Rowan's chosen exhibits can be found here and some of the very impressive speakers can be found here.

As well as being involved in the creative discussion, Tom had also taken many fws up with him to the event, which were displayed in the grounds of the hotel and solicited much interest from some very high-rolling people.

Our dream of getting sponsorship for world class installations appears to be getting closer and closer, but we're not quite there yet!

More to follow - the official c&binet website can be found here.

Additions to the range

2009-10-05T20:07:00.004+01:00

Finally we're about ready to expand the range to include some of the variants we've always

wanted to see.

There's still a bit of final development and product testing to do, but here are some graphics we've created to start to tell the world what's going on.

We wanted to be able to offer a fw variant that could be mounted on the top of a stake or post - a kind of dynamic garden flare - and being shorter means we can simply support the fw from the bottom.

and at last we've got the kit form fw. This we really like...

You'll be able to assemble a fw from components, in so doing learning about all sorts of very important things, from recycling to power generation!

We'll have much more information on these and other variants very soon.

We've been asked for big ones, little ones, models in all the colours in the rainbow, metal ones, transparent ones - all sorts!

Harvest at Jimmy's

2009-09-22T18:56:00.004+01:00

FW went to Harvest at Jimmy's, and they were blessed with sunshine and a little bit of wind in the evenings.

Didn't manage to get hold of a photo of fw in action, but I did find a pic on Flickr in which you can see one, just, lurking in the background if you look very hard!

Reports are coming in that the other units that have been installed there are really going crazy, so hopefully I'll get some pics soon.

The do itself was according to everyone I've spoken to just amazing. Very chilled, great music, great food and as above, blessed with wonderful weather.

Looking forward to next year already...

visit the Harvest at Jimmy's website

or the main Jimmy's Farm website

Firewinder on the Plinth

2009-09-18T21:23:00.006+01:00

The One and Other Plinth project was one third good, one third not good and one third poor.

Really pleased that a firewinder span, powered by the wind, and lit up wonderfully, although it was hard to see anything with the output from the spotlights

Got a few interesting soundbites, images and footage, but the sheer scale of the project, together with the strange series of events leading up to it and the volume of drunken heckling made it terrifying.

However it's incredibly flattering to see I've got nearly 350 likes which, apart from some of the 'nudes' is right at the top of the scale, so the fw and renewable / green message was well received!

Broadway Tower

2009-09-01T19:06:00.007+01:00

On Saturday we went to Broadway Tower. Broadway Tower is one of England's outstanding viewpoints and at 1024ft (312m) above sea level, it is the second highest point on the Cotswold ridge.

You can see for miles - maybe 60 on a clear day. One way it's the white horse in Melksham, the other way it's the Brecon Beacons. Wow...

Broadway Tower has enjoyed a number of well-known owners and occupants one of which was William Morris, famous architect, designer, poet and revolutionary used the Tower as a holiday retreat together with his friends Edward Burne-Jones and Gabriel Dante Rosetti.

We went there to check the place out with a view to doing some installations there in the darker months to come.

Delighted to report we had a very, very positive experience... The Tower itself and the land it sits on are just ideal for largescale installations and we hope to get some going.

Not only have they got a superb looking building, but sitting on the edge of the scarp as it does it means they get really good wind when it's coming from a Westerley direction (which it does a lot in the UK)

We were only there from 6-8, not even dark, and then only to give it a quick once over. We'd taken eight fws to put a few up and check how the wind flows around the site.

We put four up on the top of the Tower itself and a few in various locations around it. The four on the top simply went crazy. We could light the whole tower and you'd see it for miles and miles.

Hopefully we can come up with some ideas that will allow us to provide a mechanism to drive some serious visitor numbers to the site... Once the clocks go back at the end of October, there'll be lots of scope to put on some cool events and we fully intend on so doing.

We will only get a couple of shots at having the media cover any event we hold, but thankfully we've got a good little black book now, so we're gonna give this one some thought and put something fantastic together.

I'm picturing a couple of hundred fws on the hill for a week creating a fantastic spectacle, inviting people to walk amongst them, get up the tower at night, have a glass of mulled wine and a hotdog and then go home all fluffy with a bit of wind-in-the-hair...

As we get into the educational / corporate side of fw, there will doubtless be opportunities here for us to demo to small groups or make some super films.

Anyhow, watch this space...Big thanks to Neil for being such a great host and so helpful.

Visit the Broadway Tower website here and if you get the chance og and check it out for yourself. It's quite something...

short mpeg from Broadway Tower

2009-08-30T11:24:00.005+01:00

A short film shot on our evening jaunt to Broadway Tower to show them some fws.

Shot on Tom's little camera, so upholding the fw core qualities of 'on a budget', but it does show just how crazy the ones on the roof went.

A few hundred dotted around the place would be quite a spectacle. And we hope to see Tom's top lip move at some point...

Got a place on the Plinth!

2009-08-24T22:18:00.005+01:00

Genius news - won a place on the Plinth in Trafalgar Square as part of Antony Gormley's One and Other project.
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Essentially the deal is that random punters from all over the UK / globe, get to come and stand on the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square. All in the name of art.
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I've wanted to go and hang a bundle of fws from the Angel of the North for ages, but felt we might get in a bit of trouble.

So, on Wednesday 16th September between 11pm and midnight, I'll be standing on the plinth, hoping it's not raining. I'll take a couple of fws and wave them around, and in the meantime try and make sure there's enough people in the square to barrack me...
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You can visit the official one and other site here - they've got a really good streaming webcam...

Just got to drum up a bit of media support, in the usual style, and we're laughing...

Wild Nature video; Savanna on the Beach

2009-08-07T20:04:00.003+01:00

another video found on youtube, this time from a company called Wild Nature, based somewhere near Seattle who are very much in the renewable space. I'd buy one of their powered recumbent bikes...

Not sure it was very windy on the day they filmed this, but nevertheless very nice to see fws all over the globe.

see the Wild Nature video here

found on youtube

2009-07-25T19:48:00.002+01:00

found on youtube - cute installation on the side of a shed.

see it here

Bad installation / good installation

2009-07-19T12:49:00.003+01:00

I thought I'd post these two images to show the differences between how people perceive their fws and what they want to get back from them.
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This first one shows about the worst installation location I have ever seen. FW has been installed on the inside of a fence, in the garden of a terraced house which is on three sides surrounded by houses.
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Unsurprisingly, it doesn't light up much...

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This one however, is lit most of the time...

Of course we appreciate people can't always have the installation of their dreams, but to put one where it simnply will never catch any wind does seem a bit silly...

more from the Eco-Rally

2009-07-16T12:11:00.001+01:00

Here are just a few of the flashier cars driven on the Revolve eco-rally. Not only was there a Tesla, but also a herd of Lotuses (Loti?) powered by various means and constructed from a variety of materials. There was a bio-ethanol one, a methane powered one, a tri-fuel one (everything) and even one with body panels made from hemp.

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Apart from sitting in them or pottering round the car park, I didn't get to smoke the tyres of any of the sporty numbers, but instead had the Volvo S40 Driv-e, their new stop start job. Amazing that with just clever use of 'standard' engine tech they can squeeze upwards of 70mpg out of it...

We'd gone to take pictures of fw and a few of the cars. I'd envisaged parking the cars in a halo of fws but it was a very still night. Here's one solitary shot that I found on flickr...

Here's a pic of me and Tracey Smith and the methane powered van we travelled down to Brighton in. Methane has an equivalent octane rating of about 125 ron (nornal unleaded is 95-98) which in layman's terms means it goes like stink. It was by far the quickest white van I've ever been in, and makes me want to get a methance powered project on the go....

and here's a photo of the participants, taken when we got to the crash-helmet building to see Boris. Nice to have Tower Bridge in the backgorund - this is about as far dwon the river as we got on the Earth Day firewinderwander.

Book of Green

2009-07-13T09:00:00.000+01:00

Our Book of Green arrived this week. This is a free paperback eco directory with business listings, reviews, features and more. Printed on 100% recycled paper, and distributed nationwide for free.

The 30,000 will be distributed by The Ecologist, Permaculture Magazine, The Eden Project, Centre of Alternative Technology, over 50 high street and online eco shops nationwide.

The forward is written by FoF Tracey Smith - general downshifting and eco-broadcasting legend and co-driver on the Revolve Eco-Rally.

We've got a small mention in there - whilst we do not expect queues of people to be beating down our door, we felt it was important to be involved, especially since we met the BoG people at the UKAware show and they were so lovely.

The online version of the BoG is quite nifty - http://www.bookofgreen.co.uk/

Glastonbury

2009-07-06T21:20:00.008+01:00

What was fw's loss was Glastonbury's gain - lots of sunshine, but barely a puff of wind all through the weekend which made for a very enjoyable festival, but not an amazingly productive work front.

We put up ten of them on the bamboo and then the bamboo into scaffolding tubes sunk into the ground.

The Theatre and Circus bit is at the bottom of the valley, and although sometimes this area can funnel the wind, this year, it just wasn't happening.

So then we went to see the Greenpeace guys, who'd asked for a few for their tower, but again there wasn't a breath here either.

This meant we got to see a good many of the bands, so all was not lost...

There's loads of coverage of Glasto on the internet, and I'm trawling for random fw photos and videos - found a few which I'll post soon. Our official photographer has just about recovered from the experience, so I'll post some of his soon.

This place is where we want them next year - here's hoping we get the gig.

You can visit this site for some of this year's best pictures.

eco-rally write up

2009-07-04T13:10:00.002+01:00

good to see the back of the van antics making the news...

My favourite spot so far was something Quentin Wilson wrote, about Boris Johnson reviewing our Mercedes bio-methance van:

"Just imagine. Sustainable transport from old rhubarb and potato peelings. Brilliant."

Positive TV made quite a good film - http://www.positivetv.tv/revolve-eco-rally/

Glastonbury Festival update

2009-06-17T21:11:00.004+01:00

Quick update on Glastonbury Festival.

We'll be putting up some fws in Bella's Field, an area of the festival described thus: "Bella’s Field embraces comedy, the eccentric and the maverick spirit."

Which bodes well we think...

Basically we get there on Wednesday, set up the fws into supports they've already positioned and wait for wind / darkness. We'll be using 3m high black bamboo poles to give them the best access to the wind and hope for a good show.

We'll have a few in our hands, probably for the duration.

Then we'll just need a van and we'll be all set...

Revolve Eco-Rally

2009-06-16T23:19:00.003+01:00

The Revolve Eco-Rally - http://www.eco-rally.org/

That's where the van thing came from... I'd gone to Brighton with friend of firewinder and all round legend Tracey Smith (http://bookofrubbishideas.co.uk/) to take part in the rally.

Naturally hoping to drive a Tesla, but getting a Volvo. Brilliant car - it won What Car's top award - but that's more than can be said for the frankly shocking sat-nav.

Anyhow, we'd travelled to Brighton the night before in a methane powered van (thanks to Chris at http://www.organic-power.co.uk/) when we were hoping to do a photoshoot with the cars and fws, but it wasn't windy. Next best thing - get the celebs in a van and have a twizzle...

What good sports...

Thanks to Revolve and especially Alex - we'll do something good for you next year and thanks to Tracey for generally organising everything...

the back of the van...

2009-06-11T23:04:00.007+01:00

Amazing who you meet in the back of a van...

Robert Llewelyn

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Quentin Wilson

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Tracey Smith

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Carl Honore

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Joanna Yarrow

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Oliver Heath

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Al Tepper

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Alex Hartley

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oh, and a shot of me in a Tesla

Nothe Fort, Weymouth

2009-06-10T21:09:00.000+01:00

I don't think anyone was prepared for the sheer volume of rain last Saturday. wow...

We'd gone down to put up a ring of fws around the edge of the fort and we did. It was all in aid of the 65th d-day celebrations Proms in the fort.

During the afternoon, when we set up, we were very excited because it was really quite windy.

We went off searching for award winning fresh fish and chips (Fish and Fritz - well done the haddock was excellent) and waited for darkness...

Alas going well, until the heavens opened.

Great fun though... We've got our install and take down routine down to a tee...

Firewinder Activity in June

2009-06-01T22:50:00.004+01:00

As we move into summer in the UK, FWs will be out and about in force, some gigs confirmed, others in the offing.

Hot, still, long nights are what we've got at the moment, but we're not half hoping for bit of wind in June!

We'll be at Glastonbury Festival - link here and see towards the bottom - which is a huge deal, but we're also doing some smaller events (link here) as well as doing a few talks in schools.

I'm hoping for permission from the NT to do another installation on Glastonbury Tor (as requested by quite a bit of the local media!) and hoping to find a partner for a permanent installation for the winter season. If we could, Broadway Tower would be the dream spot but we'll see.

view from my window

2009-05-27T23:23:00.003+01:00

taken with my phone on a windy night last week of the fw on one of the towers in Malmesbury

and a couple of images found on the internet of Malmesbury Town Hall

Town Council

Malmesbury Bridge Club.

Rooftop terrace in Tarifa

2009-05-21T09:11:00.005+01:00

Here's a few images of a very cool rooftop installation from Tarifa in Spain

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Pics taken at the GDA

2009-05-09T12:09:00.005+01:00

A few pics from the GDA - you can see the rest here

FW in LA

2009-04-30T21:06:00.003+01:00

A zoom in on the fw installation taken from bobcat country

Back from LA...

2009-04-28T22:55:00.008+01:00

Wow, what a trip...

After a mostly uneventful flight, we arrived in LAX, hired a motor (not one Prius available from this Dollar sadly) and headed off into LA.

Surprisingly, given we only had an A4 map, we managed to get across LA without major incident and find our way up Laurel Canyon towards Studio City and arrived with our host at her house on the ridge. I certainly wasn't prepared for just how great the set up was.

Tom took some great Bubbles - 360 single shots - that paint the picture better than words and you can see these at www.tomlawton.com more photos to follow...

After several comedy trips to the hardware store(s) we installed a fw on the edge of the pool area right on the ridge, did a bit of the usual touristy stuff, did a bit of local flora and fauna and generally got ready for the awards.

It was worth the trip for those six hours alone - we made some quality connections. It's amazing how positive, humorous and glamorous the green scene is in LA! After the awards we went on the the Sofitel for the after party, then retired clutching our award and a pocket full of business cards...

Over the course of the next few days I'll post more.

Invite to the Green Dot Awards

2009-04-21T22:44:00.002+01:00

Invite to the Green Dots features a Firewinder...

can't wait..

2009-04-15T13:10:00.004+01:00

Here's a link to the Smogshoppe in LA - the venue for the Green Dot Awards ceremony on Tuesday night.

www.smogshoppe.com

Firewinder at Glastonbury

2009-04-10T13:04:00.000+01:00

We'll be making an appearance at Glastonbury Festival this year - details to be revealed shortly, but confirmation that we've got the gig has just come in.

Hoping for a windy, but not too wet, weekend at the end of June - 24th to 28 to be exact...

Earth Hour 2009 - 2min video

2009-03-30T21:21:00.009+01:00

Firewinder - Earth Hour 2009 from Firewinder on Vimeo.

Being part of the solution, not the problem...

Another cool clip from Tom - well done!

Earth Hour

2009-03-30T21:10:00.008+01:00

Earth Hour 2009. We journeyed to London to see what sort of effort would be made. We went with only twelve fws, one on a post and the rest handheld for people to hold and generally enjoy in the gusts on the river on the Southbank

In fairness many of the big buildings did turn their lights off completely for an hour - including the GLA, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Tower Bridge...etc - and many had a good go, but the skyline was still fairly bright.

It was both useful and fun. We met a couple of tv crews, got some great photos for the ongoing marketing effort, met some really enthusiastic people and laughed a lot.

We even met people who were looking for us...

St Paul's should have turned their lights off...

Letting people get touchy feely by the GLA building

Many thanks to Simon, Nerys and Liz!

Highlights, images/links/clips of which will get posted I hope:

-the guardian camera guy and his unique style of direction

-the security guy at the GLA telling the WWF they cound't film!

2009-03-20T14:59:00.005Z

We'll be exhibiting Firewinder at the UK Aware show - this is a show geared towards people who enjoy modern living but are aware of climate change and seek to improve their own position.

From their website:

"UK AWARE 09 in Olympia, London on Friday 17 & Saturday 18 April 09 shows you how easy greener living can be, how it will improve you quality of life and how much money it can save you.

UK AWARE is the UK's only green lifestyle exhibition for people who want to learn how to reduce their carbon emissions.

Our exhibitors will be showcasing hundreds of products and services ranging from cars to computers, from fashion to food and from travel to advice services."

Essentially for us this represents a chance to get in front of 4-5,000 people who might like to own a fw, as well as being able to network amongst the other companies that are exhibiting.

Please do come and see us there if you can!!

link to the UK Aware website here

Josh Spear giveaway

2009-03-20T12:59:00.007Z

JoshSpear.com - trendspotter extraordinaire, marketing strategy guru and one of the very first to blog fw - has posted a giveaway on his site.

The winner will be picked from the comments uploaded to the competition webpage - some of them are hilarious...

My favourite so far is from Pong, who said:

"Man, this is awesome. I’ll wear it on a helmet and race round the White House."

visit the JoshSpear website here

Galileo

2009-03-19T16:10:00.001Z

Seems to be the season on TV requests...

We've had a request in from Galileo, a Pro7 tv show (one of Germany's leading channels - bit like ITV) to run a review of fw on their show.

This show will go out some time in May and shows in between The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives.

Me, I'm already wondering what a German Homer sounds like....

Gadget Show

2009-03-18T15:20:00.000Z

We've been approached by the Gadget Show and asked for a fw for them to review - possibly! Possibly means that they're doing a feature on environmentally responsible lighting and thought fw an ideal candidate.
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Of course we hope fw makes the cut - we should find out soon - and if it's a go it should be broadcast some time at the beginning of May.
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We've wanted a primetime review for a while, and what better 'on topic' show than The Gadget Show.
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Get better Suzi!

Here's Johnnie.... again!

2009-03-16T12:44:00.001Z

Couldn't figure out how to ge tthe audio on the website - will keep trying.

Johnnie sent us this picture and we now know they've seen it whizzing away in the recent windy weather - Johnnie's wife twittered it - so we hope we'll get more pictures of it in the darkness.

Earth Hour 2009

2009-03-13T17:08:00.002Z

Was it really a year ago that we got the great footage of fw on Primrose Hill in London? Wow...

This year we had planned on an installation somewhere in Central London, with permission. Permission is incredibly hard to get though.

Even though we propose no damage to infrastructure and generally just to make people smile, there's a whole ocean of Health and Safety and liability to negotiate.

We've therefore decided just to wing it, and take a bundle to London and see what happens! We need a few more volunteers, so if anyone wants to participate then we'd be glad to hear from you!

Johnnie Walker

2009-03-06T13:23:00.000Z

One for the celebrity file - it's a picture of Tom with Radio 2 DJ - and now firewinder owner - Johnnie Walker.

Once it was installed, Johnnie was kind enough to give us a really good plug on his next Pirate Johnnie Walker show (BBC Radio 2 from 9-11pm) .

I'll try and post the audio from his show when I get a moment

another installation example

2009-02-24T22:24:00.003Z

Here's a couple of pics of a nice installation, which I bet looks great at night.

Then I looked closely and can see that the brackets are wrong - the top one is on the bottom and the bottom one is on the top.

This is not recommended...

Customer pics from Cyprus

2009-02-24T22:14:00.003Z

I received these images today, taken in Cyprus by a happy fw customer.

Apparently the trellis fence does let the wind through - as you can see from the last picture.

BBC Gardens Illustrated

2009-02-24T22:04:00.004Z

Gardens Illustrated - one of the most respected gardening magazines - gave us a plug in the March edition. Although it's only a small feature we are very lucky to have made the hallowed pages...

The March edition should be out in the shops soon.

Face stop

2009-02-22T21:45:00.000Z

Certainly not as impressive as I remember, that's for sure, but here's some footage of a fw being stopped whilst in motion. the wind was maybe 15-20mph, so the fw was really going for it.

We'd been worried by even the slightest chance of one causing damage, even though it sailed through CE certification, so we decided to test it on a human face, by simply stopping it dead at full speed.

Although not entirely pain free, I am delighted to report that there were no catching or sharp edges.

In-store demo

2009-02-21T21:58:00.000Z

Just a quick post showinga demo set up in a store in Seattle that sells fw.

Prize draw winners announced

2009-02-12T20:53:00.003Z

This evening we did the draw for the five winners from all of the business cards collected at the Spring Fair.

We collected 242 cards (discounting several multiple entries!) and the five winnners drawn out of the hat are:

Edward Thompson, BBC
Malcolm Berry, RHS
Elizabeth Cook, Henry and Jayne
Simon Ford, Entec UK
Clive Blatt, Scotts & Co

So, well done everyone that won one, and better luck next time to those that didn't...

Survival reports - update

2009-02-10T21:04:00.006Z

Regular visitors to this blog will know that I regularly harp on about how important it is to take your Firewinder in if really bad weather is predicted.

We class bad weather as winds over about 40mph, torrential rain, or sudden extreme changes in temperature.

Although we still heartily recommend you do take it in, and in fact it explicitly says so in the 'rule book', I thought it time for an update on a few of the 'left out in the cold' units we have on long term field testing.

Firstly the attached photos - this is a permanenly left outside and is positioned on a wooden pillar support of a garden room / conservatory, so doesn't get the full force of the wind all the time, but over the last few months has had everything thrown at it.

I was prompted to take these photos simply because of the damage caused to nearby trees and property by the wind and rain (and the ice / snow no doubt..) and alhough you can't see it clearly, there were icicles all over it!

I must take some more pictures of the two 'aerial' units in Malmesbury, but hope that doing so isn't the kiss of death! These two have been abandoned to the elements, one on the Town Hall and one on the Sykes' tower.

Both of these are truly subjected to the worst weather I've seen in years in the UK. the Cotswolds were pretty badly hit.

I'm currently working on how to get permanent webcam coverage of these two and will keep you posted.

Spring Fair 09

2009-02-09T20:32:00.001Z

It's been a crazy time for the last ten days - we exhibited at the Spring Fair at the NEC in Birmingham.

This is the UK's largest trade show, and takes up every hall and more of the NEC - it's flipping huge and covers everything from cards to sofas to lifesize plastic cows.

Although many people in our hall reported that the number of visitors wasn't great, we more than made up for it by wandering around the show twirling our fws and generally making a nuisance of ourselves until people bought some. The only major problem with the show was in fact the weather - 20cm of snow just brings the UK to its knees...

We met hundreds of really nice people from all over the UK and the world, who showed a great deal of interest in fw. We made some super contacts for sales, distribution and press, and I hope to be able to broadcast some of these soon.

We also ran a competition to win one of of five fws by dropping your card into a box, and this draw will be made tomorrow.

Of special mention should be the wonderful people on nearby stands who had to put up with our sometimes overbearing enthusiasm!

Please visit:

www.henryandjayne.co.uk - the finest felt flowers and stationery - all super-super-eco

www.springvalleyinteriors.co.uk - really cool occasional furniture, silk lamps and accessories

Liz and Tom - thanks a million...

So, updates to follow, but all in all a great show and interesting to see some big doors starting to open.

January newsletter

2009-01-31T09:31:00.005Z

Thought I would post the January newsletter here - if you look carefully you'll find a discount code offering free shipping on the first twenty orders received. Be quick though, we've had quite a few already!

If you're not on our mailing list you might miss out on future offers, so pop back to our website and sign up now.

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Dear Joe,

There's been lots of recent news from the Firewinder camp in the last few weeks as we start the New Year:

Firewinder wins a Green Dot Award
Images and video from Glastonbury Tor
Free shipping for the next twenty orders
A new flyer to download

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Firewinder scoops a Green Dot Award!!

We scooped this prestigious Green Dot award, beating off the likes of Coca-Cola, Staples and fuseproject (huge design house), so we're pretty chuffed to say the least!

"The Green Dot Awards strive to reward and promote forward-thinking businesses that create environmentally friendly products or services, and to reward revolutionary green business plans and proposals" is the way the awards are described on their website, and the people that make up the jury panel consist of leaders in the eco-sustainability field.

Our award was in the Product category, with their definition of Product being: "Everyday items, household products, or consumable goods that promote energy-conscious living."

Excellent news then, especially given the nature of the competition, that our green credentials are being recognised. What is particularly pleasing is that our goal of shifting the mass market into green living by inspiring and engaging people to think about the invisible beauty, awesome power and endless resource of the wind appears to be working.

However it's not all simply about the go-green mission, we're also trying to brighten up the place and make people smile a bit in awe and wonder...

Images from Glastonbury Tor

If you haven't already, then you must check out the Firewinderblog to see what goes on behind the scenes to see all of the images and video from ths magical Let it Glow event at Glastonbury Tor ! Many thanks to the hundreds of people that turned up and the many kind words and cool pictures we received afterwards.

Our desire to lift spirits using Firewinders the other week on the Tor and the coverage on our blog and the wider media (including a spot on the BBC homepage and news no less!) has provoked a huge amount of interest from a wide variety of people all wondering when we are going to be visiting their local area so they can come and experience wind into light for themselves...

We probably need to sell a few more Firewinders before we can embark upon a world-wide tour (!), but please, please get back to us with your suggestions of spots that are very suitable (so that's windy and easily accessible and viewable) for people to come and visit and we'll see what we can do. We'll be starting in the UK, but hope to make it further afield when time and resources allow.

Distribution Update

I know many of you are waiting for Firewinder to become available in your local area, wherever that might be, and we're working hard to make this happen all over the world, from North America to Australia. Firewinder is available now in many more countries that you'd think, so feel free to ask if there's someone in your area who can help, or to suggest anyone that might like to carry Firewinder. However in the meantime...

Free Shipping - first twenty orders only!

Firewinders themselves are not heavy - 1.13kg in fact. However, together with the brackets and the extremely robust packing tube needed for transporting them, they do attain an unhealthy volumetric weight. So, we're offering free shipping on the first twenty orders we receive on our internet site, starting now. Once you've added a Firewinder - Original Windlight to the shopping basket on our website, and selected your country for delivery then put the code 'freeshipping' in the discount / voucher box and you'll magically have the shipping cost removed. Be quick though - there's only twenty of these available!

Our new flyer

A few people have asked if we have a brochure or flyer that they can give their friends or take to meetings to show people what they've seen, as sometimes Firewinder can be quite hard to explain... You can print a good enough version of this from the Firewinderblog, or just send us an email and we'll be delighted to send you a high resolution version or a hard copy.

We'll be taking this brochure to The Spring Fair is the UK's largest trade show and exists to allow buyers from the UK and all over the world to travel to the NEC in Birmingham and see many thousands of exhibiting companies showcase their wares. We'll be there with a small stand (Hall 6 F27) showing the world what the fuss is all about, so if you know anyone that's attending send them a quick email and tell them to pop by!

and finally...

The other day we got a question about how safe it was to stop a Firewinder at full speed. Of course we'd recommend not too, unless in a real emergency, and then with a gloved hand gripping the top of the generator. To prove the point though, Joe recently performed a full-speed face stop (wind speed 45mph+), just to show that indeed there are no catching edges. We will be posting this video on the Firewinderblog sometime soon!

Many thanks and looking forward to our next update.

New brochure done

2009-01-29T16:33:00.006Z

Here's a look at a little flyer we've prepared, reminding everyone of the joys of FW, but particularly promoting our recent awards.

This is for use at various forthcoming events, the next one being the Spring Fair. the Spring Fair is the UK's biggest trade show and exists to allow all manner of suppliers to engage buyers from around the world.

It takes up every hall of the NEC, so it's huge. In fact apparently if you were to walk every aisle it would be over 30 miles!

We're in Hall 6 Stand f27 by the way.

If you ever need to explain succintly what Firewinder is all about - and believe me we do - this flyer should do the trick.

These flyers were printed, as always, by our good friends at Ripe Digital in Corsham - possibly the world's greatest high quality short-run specialists.

www.ripedigital.co.uk

more pics from Glastonbury Tor

2009-01-26T15:33:00.001Z

Thanks to Anth and Mish's mate Cal for these...

Firewinder wins a Green Dot Award !

2009-01-22T20:52:00.012Z

The Green Dot Awards are administered in Los Angeles by a panel of experts, who serve as members the jury. It's a yearly thing, with submissions from some very interesting companies.

Jury members include top international activists, progressive business founders, and pioneers of the eco-sustainability movement.

The given description of the Product category, which Firewinder won, is:

"Everyday items, household products, or consumable goods that promote energy-conscious living."

This is a big deal - here we go:

" The jury of the international Green Dot Awards (GDA) announce the winners of the 2008 competition. The GDA was established to reward and promote forward-thinking businesses that create environmentally friendly products or services, and to reward revolutionary green proposals. The GDA aims to bridge the gap between truly innovative businesses that practice excellence in environmental responsibility and international consumers and media."

Sounds good so far - now, why am I excited? Read on...

The Green Dot Awards™ strive to reward and promote forward-thinking businesses that create environmentally friendly products or services, and to reward revolutionary green proposals.

Recognizing that human activity is causing dramatic environmental change, we must ensure that we act today to protect tomorrow’s environment. Businesses and organizations have become especially aware of the impact that their practices have on the well-being of the planet and many are acting to adopt more sustainable attitudes. The purpose of Green Dot is to reward those who practice excellence in environmental responsibility.

Although the Green Dot Awards are worthy onto themselves, they are also a consumer guide to excellence in environmentally-sustainable practices. A business with a Green Dot Award is a business that can be trusted by consumers with stewardship of the environment. Recognition from the Green Dot Awards allows businesses to promote their products and services as items that are manufactured and delivered in an environmentally friendly manner.

Green Dot Awards was Juried by experts in the industry:

Kyle D. Brown, Ph.D., Director, John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies, California State Polytechnic University

Daniel D. Chiras, Ph.D., Author of The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy, The New Ecological Home, The Solar House, The Natural House, Superbia! 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods, and The Natural Plaster Book

Peo Ekberg, Environmental Consultant for Sustainability and LifestyleCO2 Adviser

Dave Evans, Author of Cool Green Stuff: A Guide to Finding Great Recycled, Sustainable, Renewable Objects You Will Love

Steven Foster, President of the Steven Foster Group and commercial consultant for eco-sustainability

Christine Mason McCaull, Co-founded GoGreen Online, and Go GreenTV

Shelagh McNally, Editor at Green Living Online & Green Living Enterprises

Now, check the products (and who made them) that were in the category with us

Wow...

Some big words there, but seeing the cloud of companies, people, approaches and goals involved is really satisfying - and hopefully winning this award will allow fw to become involved in some very interesting projects.

cool EL signs made for us by GLOWSAFE

2009-01-22T10:50:00.004Z

So many people have asked me about my little flashing fw sign that I had to share where I got it from. In the darnkess of the Tor it was really useful to have something that instantly told people what they were seeing...

This wonderful bit of electroluminescent goodness was made for us by a Glastonbury company called GLOWSAFE.

I was quite blown away really, not only by the fw sign itself, but also the range of other things that Paul and his gang can do... From simple flashing / constant-on badges to serious lifesaving stuff to keep people safe in the dark.

If you need shiny gadgetry to promote your business or keep kids /people safe in the dark then this is well worth a look!!

Basically using el technology creates something that is many times more visible that even the normal super-reflective stuff you find, and doesn't need an external lightsource to reflect - it's already lit.

visit www.glowsafe.com for more information

This is Somerset

2009-01-19T20:26:00.005Z

this short video clip appeared on the This is Somerset website.

It was shot on the Saturday when we were up the Tor, but does not include too much night time stuff so you don't get the whole effect, but nevertheless it's pretty cool...

link to the This is Somerset page here

grab of the Points West clip

2009-01-13T13:56:00.006Z

Finally managed to get a copy of the clip from last night's Points West show.

I've had to compress it (twice) so it's not actually too good at all - I'd still recommend looking at the version on the BBC's website...

more from the Tor

2009-01-12T22:20:00.003Z

Thanks to Sam Morris for these

a few photos from the Tor

2009-01-12T22:10:00.003Z

Thanks to Ali and Will for these...

Points West coverage of the Tor

2009-01-12T21:12:00.007Z

Until I can work out how to get a copy of the report that featured on BBC Points West, here's the screenshots of the coverage and a link to the footage on their site.

I am loving the Close Encounters music...

BBC Points West link here

Very successful first installation!

2009-01-12T18:27:00.010Z

Wow, what a weekend - where to even start!

There's loads of images and video on the internet and some TV to report,but I'll start first with a narrative of what happened...

We arrived at about 12:30 on Saturday to set up our installation of 40 fws on the Tor.

We'd spent the previous day on the mounts - making sure that we had pre-assembled the brackets to thin square section metal tube, so that we had a strong and light assembly.

We then mounted some of these metal mounts onto wooden stakes, and others we simply pushed into the ground. A zero-impact installation, which is nice.

By about 3:00 we were done with the set-up - we'd been up and down the flipping hill six times, so no need for the gym for a day or two!

At about 3:30 Andy the BBC cameraman arrived, to shoot some footage for BBC Bristol to shape into something for BBC Points West - the West Country's news show. Tom did a few pieces to camera - note to self buy him a new hat - and so the night went on.

The wind was not amazing, but Richard Angwin - Points West weather guru - didn't let us down. We'd got there to find still and frosty conditions, so were quite pleased when the wind picked up from about 3pm onwards, maybe 8-10mph gusting 15-18mph on occasion. With the windchill on top of -1 deg C made it very, very cold for everyone.

We had a couple of visits from photographers from local papers as well, as well as the local constabulary, who we had forewarned.

Special mention goes to Paul Manning of Glowsafe, a local Glastonbury company, who make the most amazing electroluminescent signage and brought us two to adorn our jackets - I'll post something on this later.

Then on Sunday the weather got much, much more windy. My pocket anemometer read a maximum gust of 71mph, so either it needs recalibrating or it was truly windy!

For the first time ever we were treated to a sight of 40 fws all pillaring for some three hours of darkness, before it was time for us to take them down and get back into the warmth. Thanks to Will and Simon for helping take them down

Now I've got to track down and post the various media bits and pieces and the images and videos that the visitors to the Tor produced. We had not promoted this event, other than here and by our newsletter (sign up if you haven't) and still countless visitors arrived.

We're on for the 10th January - Glastonbury Tor

2009-01-08T12:58:00.000Z

Finally we've got the right conditions for our first large installation - we're gonna be up the Tor on Saturday with 50 fws creating a spectacle to blow away some winter blues inthe West Country.

The weather is set to be fairly windy - 10mph gusting 18mph - so we look all set for a good night.

We have the TV coming to film us so I'll be sure to post / notify.

If you or anyone you know is in the Glastonbury area we'd love to see you or have them see us!

Our Glasto antics make the BBC

2009-01-07T13:22:00.007Z

Excellent news today, a Firewinder story has gone live on the BBC website!

During the run up to our little show on Glastonbury I had spoken to the Beeb to see if they wanted to cover the spectacle and they would have, but for our cancellation due to the lack of wind.

However they liked the story behind fw enough to write up a story on what we're up to and where Tom got the inspiration - and the result is a lovely piece complete with a photo or two.

If you discount things like Google, Facebook and Yahoo then the BBC wesbite is the UK's most visited website - to have made the england homepage must be akin to being on the front page of a newspaper, so we hope this will raise some awareness.

Naturally the BBC cannot promote or endorse any particular brand or product so we hope that our continued public installation activity will be newsworthy by the sheer spectacle it creates.

link here for the story

Glastonbury Tor - multiple installation

2009-01-07T13:20:00.000Z

Here's a short video of our foray into multiple installations - shot on Glastonbury Tor with ten fws in a wind peaking maybe 20mph, but often less.

We were blown away by how brilliant they looked and has given us all sorts of ideas for public art stuff so more to follow we hope...

Glastonbury Tor is owned and managed by the National Trust for ever for everyone. For more information visit http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/

Stills from Glastonbury

2009-01-07T13:13:00.002Z

Yet more shots from our latest trip to Glastonbury.

I like this first one particularly because it's a 'shows what it is all about' pic, and these are hard to come by...

Another clip from Glastonbury

2009-01-07T12:32:00.005Z

Another short clip taken when we did our installation on Glastonbury Tor.

Taken with Tom's little digital camera the footage looks a bit skippy and jumpy...

Clip from Glastonbury Tor in strong wind

2009-01-04T22:25:00.005Z

This clip was taken when we went for our first recce to Glastonbury Tor. After we'd finished checking various locations on the hill and aroud the Tower for future camera friendliness, we went and played in the channel of wind in the tower on the top.

Glastonbury Tor is owned and managed by the National Trust for ever for everyone. For more information visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk

Glastonbury - trying again Monday 5th

2009-01-04T20:45:00.000Z

Looks like tomorrow's the worst weather day for a couple of weeks, so we'll give Glastonbury a shot with dozen or so fws.

Here's a photo we took last time we were up there...

Of course this doesn't give us time to make a good run at the media, but we'll see what we can do with the footage.

Glastonbury Tor - POSTPONED

2009-01-01T12:11:00.005Z

We're right in the middle of some of the calmest weather conditions we've seen for a while.

A large, slow moving area of high pressure is just sitting on top of Glastonbury Tor, laughing as it thwarts our plans to light up the night sky in Somerset.

I've had a word with everyone I can (the national weather centre, local TV weather forecaster, God...etc) but no-one can get it shifted - looks like it will be with us for a few days longer.

Therefore, annoyingly, we have had to postpone this event until there is a bit of a breeze.

We've had some positive feedback from our local TV stations, so we're keen as mustard to get this done - check back for more news...

Happy New Year by the way!

Glastonbury Tor - let it glow!

2008-12-22T18:48:00.007Z

We'll be lighting up Glastonbury Tor next weekend - Friday 2nd January.

This is great news and we're very grateful to the National Trust for the chance to see what 40 or so look like. As you'd expect there are guidelines and rules on what we can do and how we put up our fws.

Please note - The National Trust does not endorse any products (although I'll happily endorse all of theirs that I have had the pleasure to visit in my time!)

Lots to organise, so a full report will come later, but if you know anyone in the area let them know to keep an eye on the Tor that weekend or come and see it yourself - it should be great fun and spectacle.

Glastonbury Tor is owned and managed by the National Trust for ever for everyone. For more information visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk

How to show them off...

2008-12-17T21:46:00.009Z

Now the next batch is here and being made ready, so it's time to get out there and show people what they're missing...

We're working creating a real spectacle of loads of them, and we're thinking about locations and how to get it done.

We'll try to do as many as possible in the next few weeks and I'll be sure to post them here when they're confirmed. We'll try and get something organised so that we can do both media friendly events (like Glastonbury Tor - pictured here) and in places where there are loads of people / traffic.

Another cool shot

2008-12-14T13:13:00.004Z

Another shot from the recent photo session. Top marks to Sid again, for managing to capture an image that actually looks like a fw in operation.

link here for The Walcot Studio

light vs windspeed

2008-12-14T13:01:00.003Z

Here's a graphic created to represent what a fw actually does in different windspeeds.

Tom spent an afternoon with Sid and the big fan, taking pics at diferent windspeeds.

Of course the human eye still sees it a bit differently, but this is closer than anything we've had so far.

Next shipment due in this week!

2008-12-14T12:22:00.000Z

Our next shipment is nearly here. We expect it to be available to ship on the 22nd though, so only the UK and near Europe will be able to have delivery in time for Christmas.

Deliveries to the rest of the world will happen in between Christmas and the New Year.

Good news, bad news

2008-12-09T16:26:00.004Z

Good News - People love Firewinder / Bad News - we've sold out...

Out of our first shipment we've completely sold out with none left in the fulfilment house and only my three in the office.

Rubbish!!!

The long and the short of it is that fw has simply proved more interesting to more people than we thought. We'd expected them to go, but not before the next load, due in on the 19th/22nd December had arrived. They might get to customers in the UK and Europe before Xmas, but not for sure - more likely is they will get to people in the break between Xmas and New Year.

So good people of the world, if you want to experience fw during 2008, don't delayand pre-order today.

Comments on this blog

2008-12-08T20:29:00.002Z

I seem to spend loads of my time answering questions about bits and pieces that appear on the blog, which is fine, and a few people have suggested I open up the comments bit...

So I have...

Back up on the Sykes' Tower

2008-12-08T12:17:00.004Z

As part of our drive to light up our local area, we've installed several fws all over Malmesbury and I took a couple of snaps with my phone from the top of the Sykes' Tower.

They've been brilliant in letting us put one up for the duration of Christmas.

This is a really visible installation, given that it is on the crossroads of the main route through Malmesbury.

For this installation, I have used a piece of scaffolding pole with appropriately drilled holes and mounted the brackets to that.

Drilling holes in these poles is a right hassle, but well worth the aggro if you can get it done for a 'seen from a long way off' installation. It's not the most aesthetic of mounts but it's really secure and won't break.

Then, to fix the post to the roof, I simply chopped the end of a plank with an axe to make a few wedges and used these to pin the post into the corner of the top of the inside of the Tower, where there happened to be a fixing for the flagpole support.

Here's a close up, and you can see the fw on the Town Hall in the background.

more customer installations

2008-12-08T12:02:00.005Z

Another great installation, this time on the wooden support for a sunroom / conservatory

Science Museum

2008-12-05T16:46:00.003Z

Finalised the deal with The Science Museum, which is great.

As detailed before we are not keen on too many people reselling fw, but of course the world famous Science Museum would always be an exception!

If you've never been, it's the most fantastic place for kids of all ages. When I go with Caspar, I'm not sure which of use enjoys it more! Seriously worth a day out, especially as the Natural History Museum is just around the corner.

link here for the Science Museum website

Wow - very cool...

2008-12-05T12:34:00.001Z

How cool is this???

Firewinder in Rotterdam - what a superb installation and probably one of the best we've seen!

The guy who did this installation will be working closely with us to bring Firewinder to the Netherlands - I'm sure I'll announce something soon...

In the meantime, Rob, you're a genius!

Incoming images of Firewinders at their new homes...

2008-12-05T10:06:00.008Z

There's gonna be a whole lot of these, but here's a cool one showing Richard Barnes (a Member of the London Assembly and appointed as statutory Deputy Mayor by Boris Johnson!) and his Firewinder safely installed on the top of a pergola in the garden.

...

rty

...

Firewinder goes to London

2008-12-05T00:25:00.005Z

Up to London to see the lights get switched on in Trafalgar Square and generally have a wander around and show a few people fw in action.

Never trust the weather forecast... There wasn't the howling gale I'd been hoping for but nevertheless it was rare for them not be lit up so all in all a great success.

The scene... Choir, Boris, Norwegian guy, crowd, tree...etc

Nelsons Column...

Big Ben...

National Gallery...

Air Street didn't really live up to it's name... Duncan on the pole

Eros...and a statue

In fact we met lots of nice people throughout the night, who stopped us and asked all sorts of questions, some good, some not so good.

And of course our pizza buddies - hello Alix, hello Fran!

General Update - it's all go...

2008-12-03T16:57:00.000Z

Crikey, what a busy week...

The important news however - at the time of writing there are only 150 units left in stock. Once these have gone, we'll next have some ready around the beginning of the Christmas week - this won't make a difference to some I'm sure.

We've been blown away with what's happened to be frank, and we're only just getting going... This week hundreds of firewinders have gone off to all over the world, from Miami to Melbourne. We've had a really interesting mix of people buying them and it's great to see where they are all going and I'll be posting pics now I know they're all arriving. They've arrived in Australia, America, Canada, Russia, loads of Europe - in all I think 27 countries now. I'm not sure when the one going to the boat will get there...

What else... We've kept our local interest hopefully blooming with a few installations - we've put one up on the Town Hall, on the Silk Mills, one back on the Sykes' Tower for Christmas, the three in the Jubille Gardens, on on my house, and we're going to do something for the late night shopping in Malmesbury on Friday.

Tomorrow we're off to London, like firewinder-carrying Dick Wittingtons, to do a few demos in the day and then see what's going on in Trafalgar Sqaure with the big tree.

All this and we still really need to do a six stop tour of Europe to kickstart our distribution efforts although I'm hearing nothing but good things from just having the product travel and not me and Tom yabbering on about it!

This week we're finalising the Science Musem - excellent news - and a couple of other things.

local stuff

2008-12-02T18:57:00.001Z

As fws wing their way all over the world (I will post something on this later) we have begun kitting out our local town to give a bit of festive cheer to Malmesbury.

The Council have been very supportive of us and fw, so we kitted out the Town Hall with a fw - you can just see it mounted to the flagpole in this photo.

Then our attention turned to the Jubilee Gardens, a small patch of garden looked after Malmesbury Civic Trust. We've been given permission, but I expect we will remove them soon, simply because the units are a bit accesible to anyone and we wouldn't want to encourage any damage to MCT property (although of course we'd cover the cost)

Then I was invited to present to the Wardens and Freemen of Malmesbury, which I did, and initial rumours say they like it and will support our effort, even buying one!

The quid pro quo for all of this will be to lavish heavy praise on them all within our media output. Which we will of course. It's great to have the support of the varous bodies that run our loal own and we are very grateful.

I'll post pics of these guys in action and map showing where they are- the wind is coming now, following a week of the stillest weather we've had for ages!

The Carousel at Bath Christmas Market

2008-12-01T14:39:00.002Z

Another perspective on fw on the carousel in Bath Christmas Market...

visit to Bath Christmas Market

2008-12-01T13:15:00.010Z

Last week Thursday saw the opening of the Bath Christmas Market. The streets surrounding the Abbey are turned into a market with a kind of Alpine feel to it, and there's a huge bundle of Christmas goodies for everyone to buy.

The event marks the start of the festive season in Bath and usually gets a good turn out...

.

We knew that a friend of ours had a stall at the market, so a few weeks back we asked if we could mount a fw to the side in the hope it would act as a draw for his stand and give us a bit of promotion.

..

Sadly on ground level it was remarkably still, so we made a sign for the stall mounted one that said 'Spin Me' in much the same way as the 100% Design show, and then went off to mooch around with another one on a post.

Tom had made a weathervane type sign for the top of a post, and this looked and performed quite well.

Then we walked past the Bath Abbey Tower and noticed they were organising tours to get out onto the roof and up on the tower. An opportunity not to be missed we felt.

We arrived at just the right time, given they were between tours and had some local press photographers about to go up there. Following an Elf & Safety briefing, we marched up the 212 steps to the roof of the tower, to find it was quite windy.

Fortunately we had friend of firewinder Paul, from The Walcot Studio with us to capture the moment...

more to follow...

strange sights seen in Bath

2008-11-27T22:43:00.006Z

One of Bath Christmas Market's more interesting characters gives fw a spin...

On the Carousel at Bath Christmas Market

2008-11-27T22:33:00.005Z

This was very funny.

There's so much backlight that my camera struggled though - fw looked really bright to the eye....

Firewindersign

2008-11-27T20:15:00.001Z

Sign built for our pre-Christmas activities

It's nearly right...

Culver installation

2008-11-25T13:53:00.006Z

Excellent, the chain of fws continues...It's like an optical telegraph...

I have secured a bamboo post into my hedge, and put two fws on that. You can't see it very well, but the building in the distance on the right hand side is in fact the Silk mills, and another fw is mounted on there as detailed in my previous post.

From my top floor you can se the Town Hall, where we hope to have a few fws, and the Sykes' tower, where we had one earlier in the year.

..

Installation on the Silk Mills, Malmesbury

2008-11-25T12:19:00.005Z

With our first shipment now landed and being despatched to our first customers, we wanted to put up a few fws in the local area. We decided therefore, with permission, to put one on Tom's building - the Silk Mills in Malmesbury.

Tom did this on Sunday afternoon, and boy was it windy that night...

I can see this fw from my garden (more than 200 yards), and on Sunday night it was electric in 20mph+ winds. Last night however, the wind changed directions and it was only a soft spiral - I will hopefully take pictures this evening - a bit of wind predicted - and I am trying to sort out a permanent webcam so people can look from the comfort of their own homes.

Primrose London

2008-11-24T12:07:00.002Z

Last week I went to see a company caled Primrose London, who had seen fw and wanted to feature it on their website.

Primrose is a family run business, based in Reading, who have diversified very effectively from their core strength of water features and patio awnings to supply an enormous range of garden and outdoor products. As they say, "Whether you live in the heart of the city or the depths of the country, we hope you will find something to refresh your spirits and brighten up your garden or balcony. " We couldn't agree more...

Their products are often featured in Gardening and style columns in the major newspapers and magazines and apparently they're also frequently asked to provide expert advice and water features for TV shows such as Big Brother and "I'm a Celebrity". We watch this space for fw in the jungle!!!

I very much liked the fact that they had done their research on what fw was all about.

Anyhow, although it's late for Christmas, we are glad to be working with a class leading company like Primrose and hope fw does well for them.

follow the link here for fw on Primrose-London.co.uk

Taking stock

2008-11-21T22:32:00.005Z

Today is a historic day in FWC history because next week the first load are setting off to about twenty countries to their lucky owners and start the whole ball rolling... It's not been easy, but now the funs starts.

Our thoughts turn to making the most of pre-Christmas promotional opportunities, to give as many people the chance to experience and hopefully buy one!

We've got four weeks to pack in as much as we can so expect to see Firewinders popping up all over the place - for me, Trafalgar Square on the 4th December when they light up the big spruce has got to be done, and the firewinderbike will be well pedalled I'm sure, but we'll see what happens.

Getting cool installations covered well by the media has to be the way forward, but we're still not in possession of a budget for that sort of thing, so we'll have to do it all organically.

Yesterday I got stuck in really slow moving heavy traffic outside the Oracle in Reading, coming home from a meeting, so decided to do some impromptu market research. I pulled into a car park, and went back to the side of the road with fw and just sat there in the 7-8mph breeze created by the layout of the buildings for ten minutes. Wow, literally every third car wound down the window and asked me what it was, which was great and gives us food for thought...

The prodigal Firewinder returns...

2008-11-20T21:48:00.002Z

So it turns out a slight lack in communication was the only culprit. Firewinder safely returned - all in all a good result. Glad to see SN16 getting it's reputation back!

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Anyhow, we've put a proposal to the Council now to see if we can get some fws up on the Town Hall and dotted around Malmesbury in time for Christmas.

link here

video from The Peak, Hong Kong

2008-11-19T09:10:00.004Z

A video collage shot at the top of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong on our recent factory visit. Annoyingly it was a bit still, but this shows fw performance in lower windspeeds quite nicely.

You would not believe the interest this caused, with flocks of tourists taking pictures and vieos of this strange spiralling light.

final visit to oversee production - done!

2008-11-18T10:56:00.016Z

Tom is now back from HK, having spent a week there and in China, overseeing the last stages of production and QA/QC.

All went very well, and perfect product is now coming off the production lines, to be back with us early next week - after a six month delay we're very nearly there!

Here's a picture of Tom with one of the first volume production units, up on The Peak. Once a residential area for priviledged ex-pats, The Peak is now about the best place to get a good view of HK, once you've ridden up on the impressive trams. As always, fw attracted quite a crowd of people wanting to know what it was...etc

Yes, we've managed to more or less miss the volume Christmas and festive markets around the world, which is a bit of a disaster, but the levels of interest and orders are very pleasing.

All of our inital customers should therefore get their Firewinders within the next two weeks - this is very exciting for us and the end of a long wait for some. Our first pre-order was taken on 14th February this year!

Since we started the move from prototype to manufactured product, the global ecomony has not really been in very good shape... Fuel costs have risen, raw material costs have risen, banks are not helpful, exchange rates are crippling, labour costs are up...

All of these are very 'corporate', but these issues do now affect smaller businesses and unless things settle and get better, fw will definitely cost more in the New Year.

home-cooked durability testing

2008-11-15T19:10:00.004Z

Here starts another real-world, long-term durability test.

Destructive testing, labs, wind tunnels, certification, compliance - lots of sciencey stuff, and we've done and got it all. This test is to see how long a fw will last given a daily working over as per the clip, but also chucked in the back of the car, dragged to the park and otherwise abused. Reports will be made regularly.

I should probably write some sort of disclaimer here, kind of 'do as we say, not as we do'...

indoor fun

2008-11-15T18:42:00.004Z

Another installation style

2008-11-15T11:06:00.006Z

Found this iron hanger for a lantern, and thought it would make a good temporary hanger for a FW, which it does very well.

I use a simple 3/4" split ring to hang the FW from the hook, in order to ensure the fixing points cannot rotate and therefore power is generated...

I have also tethered the bottom using parachute cord and a tent peg.

So you can see this is not a long term installation by any stretch - I would certainly not leave FW like this for longer than a night / weekend, and of course it has to be in the right place to catch the wind so low down, and be seen from where desired.

This is the sort of thing we've used for a party or event, provided the tether isn't going to be kicked by a child or drunk person or wee'd on by a dog.

Please note that as this installation deos no use the mounting brackets and is not regulation height...etc, we cannot be seen to encourage anyone to try this- you should always use the mounting brackets to ensure a long tife and keep everything safe.

Bamboo installation

2008-11-15T10:25:00.011Z

I happened across some cool bamboo, about 3 or 4" thick - really solid stuff. It's used to transport handmade rugs from India by a friend of ours. click here for Amy Kent Rugs

So I thought I'd knock up and photograph a quick mount in the office to see how it turned out...

Given bamboo presents a curved surface to the flat brackets, I thought a couple of small strips of craft foam might offer a bit of squish and allow the brackets to be locked down.

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So, marked the position of the holes in the top bracket, making sure first that each bracket was in a good position in the centre of a section of bamboo.

Then took a drill, with maybe a 2.5mm precision bit, and drilled out two holes. I then took a 6.5mm drill and opened each of the holes up to take an M6 coach bolt (smooth headed 6mm thick bolt about 4" long, complete with washer and wingnut)

Here's the top bracket, you can see the foam strip I have applied, which worked really well. Using a washer behind the wingnut means it can be wound tight and creates a really secure bracket.

Then offered up the FW to ensure the bottom bracket is positioned correctly, and mark the centres of each hole.

Drilled as before with a small precise drill first...

Then attached bottom bracket, again using small strip of craft foam.

Now the brackets are securely attached, it's time to put the FW in using the quick release pin.

Here's a pic of the finished mount...

Then I turned on the fan and took this 'with flash' picture... As you can imagine, the big fan is not really very good in the office.

and this 'without flash' picture...

Grand Designs magazine

2008-11-12T18:53:00.005Z

Grand Designs is one of the mags Tom has wanted for ages to feature firewinder. We really hoped that at some point we could get it into a feature by being in the photo of a development.

So we were very pleased to find that fw has been featured in their 'How to pick the perfect gadget for Christmas'.

It's great that they've given us the column inches, but they have said 'Shedding light up to 25 metres in every direction'. Not when the wind isn't blowing...

Anyhow, it's really good to get a plug, and I will follow this one as far as possible in the future.

Your Home magazine - December issue

2008-11-12T18:35:00.004Z

Firewinder appeared in the December edition of Your Home magazine, in a feature called 'Make your outside space sparkle'.

Thanks to Rachel @ Firebox for this.

When to take down your Firewinder

2008-11-11T22:40:00.008Z

Anyone thinking about buying a firewinder is naturally concerned about how long it will last in normal operation, and there usually follows a discussion about what defines 'normal'...etc,etc.

It's not simple...

Firewinder isn't meant to be left outside permanently - that's why the quick release mechanism exists; once you have the brackets mounted correctly it takes seconds to put up or take down.

It costs £100, so that should be reason enough to take the measures needed to prolong its life...

I actually said recently, "Imagine a scale with £100 worth of fireworks at one end, and a £100 designer desklamp at the other. Firewinder is somewhere in the middle for 'wow per unit time' "

The point is this: your firewinder will last forever if you keep it in its box. We don't want you to do that, we want you to enjoy it often, look after it always, and get years of use and fun. But it's not indestructible or everlasting, nor do we offer a warranty or guarantee other than statutory.

Here's what we recommend as the limits of operation:

windspeed: up to 35mph
rain: light showers only
temperature: 4 - 40 deg C

If you take down your fw when it looks like being outside these conditions you'll be fine. If it's out in a storm you might not...