Playing with Sugru, aka an Ergonomic Stylus Grip

I recently bought a packet of Sugru* through the mail, and when it came I knew exactly what to use it for.

See this?

Oh trusty Wacom stylus, you have served most loyally and well. After 8 years of abuse it still works perfectly, but my Graphire has been discontinued. If I want a new grip I have to a) buy a new tablet (since the new styluses don’t work with Graphire, I think) b)  repurpose a pencil grip and not be able to use the side buttons or  c) bear it and move on.

Or I can make my own with Sugru! Yay.

I really must apologize for the bad lighting, by the way. I did this late at night instead of normal sane things like sleeping.

This what sugru looks like! It was more sticky than I expected, but using soapy water helps. I mixed the orange and white to see what it would look like.

I don’t have any pictures of me actually making the grip, unfortunately. I didn’t want Sugru all over my camera. But the basic idea is: I wanted to make a grip shaped essentially like the usual three-sided pencil grip, with modifications. The thing is, there are usually buttons on the side a Wacom stylus, and you always want to use the thumb to press these buttons. Using another finger would require changing your hand position, and you won’t be able to click on them as you draw/write.

So you need to be able to press these buttons, and you want the buttons to be on the side with the thumb.

So ideally you’ll want to hold it like the above. The solution I came up with incorporates grooves and indents around the buttons, so you get tactile feedback as to their positions. You can tell which side the buttons are on from this alone.

But of course redundancy is good, so for extra tactile feedback I put in a notch where the pen rests on the middle finger. (Look at that picture above with my hand to see what I mean.) Now every time you grip the stylus, your fingers will automatically find their rightful place. It should work for both left- and right- handers, since the grip is symmetrical.

Now, if you have a really weird way of holding your pencils, you probably won’t find it too comfortable. I have a standard tripod grip, with the pencil held between my thumb and index finger, and resting on my middle finger, and that’s what I had in mind with this grip.

Now a new problem arises: my stylus won’t fit in its holder anymore! It used to fit perfectly with the pen-tip down. Future Project: Ergonomic Stylus Holder?

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*Sugru (aka Formerol) is a silicon variant designed to help you customize/fix/hack your stuff. I have no idea how they make it, but apparently it’s dishwasher-safe, waterproof, self-adhesive, flexible, and it cures at room temperature. Unfortunately it’s not very cheap at the moment, since it’s still made in England… when are they opening that Chinese factory?

Luckily, you can make your own Sugru substitute from silicone caulk and cornstarch.