But what it’s called is either a visor or a face shield. And it’s basically a clear bit of plastic that wraps around the front of your face and protects you from droplets or spray or anything like that. 

My name’s Dermot, Dermot Jones. I’m one of the founders and directors of South London Makerspace, which is a community – a social community workshop, we call it. So it’s a workshop for people to make things. And we’ve kind of got a joke line that – as long as it’s legal, and it’s feasible to make it, and you can make it safely enough – you can come and try and make it here. 

South London Makerspace is in a railway arch, which are nearly all Victorian built railway arches. And there’s something like 10,000 of them across the UK and Scotland. So we’re in Herne Hill, in South London. And we’re on the kind of industrial estate that are a lot of people might be vaguely aware of in their local areas. There’s mechanics down here and metal workers and carpenters. And I think a lot of people are kind of scared because they kind of look like rubbish strewn areas with buddleia growing out of the walls, and they wouldn’t venture down them. But once you do there’s, there’s always interesting things going on. 

So really early on at the beginning of the pandemic, I had this inkling that Makerspace could sort of play a useful part in it. We were closed to our members, but we’ve got a workshop full of tools and equipment. And right from the start I was thinking, yes, this is kind of our time, in a way. We’ve got everything we need, but what do people need? I was aware that there was a shortage of shields or visors, particularly for medical people. And I was doing a lot of reading – the research is very scant, and there’s a lot of rumour and hearsay, and there still is around Covid – but I became aware that face shields and masks were going to be key. 

I assumed at that time that there were plenty of masks available. It turns out that there weren’t, but I knew that they were very, very short of faceshields. So, I started experimenting around the house for what I could do, and I was communicating with a lot of people online. Someone found that you could use ring binder covers – A4 report covers. And I thought okay, well that’s something I’ve got. So I got a Makerspace annual report, I tore off the front cover, I found some rigid foam packing that I had from some 3D printing stuff that I had lying around, I cut that up, I found some elastic, and I found a glue gun and I made, at home, just a really quick face shield. 

And, and it really worked, and I thought okay, well this is really interesting, this is just stuff found around the home, so you can just do it. And then I found enough materials to make about 10 and then someone else come up with a laser cut design. 

And I thought that’s really quick.

I just went in and started to make the first batch. 

And it did become a little bit like factory work making PPE, making masks and visors. And you’re thinking well, this could all be for nothing, maybe - maybe no one wants any of this.

I’ve got a background working with other types of volunteers. I started to think of all the places that I’d been that, that care for people and might need them and I’ve worked quite a lot in supported accommodation. So you phone up some care homes. I phoned up one …I think I’m gonna tear up a bit, so I’d better be careful. I phoned up one in Dulwich – Leonard Cheshire Care Home – and I said, look, you know, we’re making these face shields, and we’re happy to donate them. Who do I need to speak to about them? And she said ‘Well, you need to speak to the manager, but she’s not here’.

And she said ‘But I don’t think she’s gonna say no’.

It was a shock. It was sad. Because you kind of hope that they’ll phone, you’ll phone them up and they’ll go: no, we’re actually alright. It’s just – it’s just a news story. But you know, just about everywhere you spoke to – they didn’t have anything. These places have been sort of left. So you know, I just basically got them all in bags and I went round the next day and handed them over and it was just, you know: couldn’t go in, it was all Covid stuff. But I sort of waved to a couple of the people through the door, a couple of the people they support. 

I was born in a 1960s house, on Sydenham Hill. I was born with views of Sydenham Hill Woods, right at the top of the hill, and you could see across to London and St. Paul’s and all the buildings of London. Yeah, so I’m kind of Southeast London born and bred. And I’ve lived in London all my life. I went to went to school in Forest Hill. 

You know, it always used to be, one of the kids in the car, they said ‘Oh, if you want something drawn, Dermot’ll draw it’ and you know, ‘Dermot’ll draw you a dinosaur’. 

But the other thing that I used to do was break electronic things, and mechanical things. Always, I broke so many things, so many toys and gadgets in heaps because I had no idea. Open it up. How does this work? It wasn’t until I was like, quite a late teenager, that I suddenly noticed that when I took things apart, I was able to put them back together. I think I’m probably more creative than I am an administrator and an organiser. And that’s kind of – Covid gave me a bit of an opportunity to get back into being creative and hands–on. So in amongst a tragedy that was a bit of a gift for me. It reminded me that you know, I like mulling over a design problem and being pushed out my comfort zone and trying to get people to do things I didn’t even know were valuable. I got quite a lot of sparks of joy and creativity out of it.

So usually there’d be someone in there on the lathe or on the, on the chopsaw. 

Well, being in a railway arch you’re always living under sort of a parabola or an ellipse or some sort of big curved ceiling. And like, maybe it’s lined with PVC rib lining in it. It can make it feel like a spaceship.

Even though it’s only a few months ago, there’s a little bit of nostalgia – because this was like the beginning. Our first kind of like concrete offer to people: what they couldn’t get was face shields and – there’s a bit of pride, I’m sort of proud of the maker movement for coming together. Well we’ve made over 2,000 face shields, and I think for the masks, it’s probably two and a half to 3,000 so far – and yet we’re still busy. 

We given hundreds away to boxing clubs and other local community groups and food banks and whoever wants them. And that’s a nice sort of bit of pride: when I go past somewhere, I glance in I go, oh yeah, they’re wearing some of our shields.