** Please Scroll down for Their Story ** 12,000 visors created & donated £free in April - we are currently in the process of obtaining HSE approval for our updated Visor so we can continue donating (a further 4,000 visors being made but on hold)

Matthew & Faye would like to say a big thank you to @datareprographics and @statementchairs, who helped get this project going and supplying materials from their own studios. Velta Courier who have been our Knights of the road delivering into London hospitals. Also a big thank you to all those who have donated money, materials, packaging, encouragement, deliveries drop off and pick up of visor packs to volunteers and hospitals, and companies who pushed aside red tape to support us. To our neighbours in Twickenham who joined the community of visor making, and all those in the TV and film art departments who responded to the email “calling all creatives” and came with their glue guns ready. Hence our project name @visorartdept.

THEIR STORY - updated mid April

I set this page up to help fund my inlaws Matthew & Faye who started making visors from their dining room table approx 3 weeks ago. With help from Faye’s work colleagues they have been self financing the making of visors and donating them for free to NHS hospitals. We all know somebody in our community, our families and friends who are health workers, our own family member is an ICU nurse in a major London hospital.

They needed money to buy materials for the project (acetate, foamex, foam, Velcro, glue guns etc..) We were looking for companies who could supply/donate materials for the project. The vision was to scale up visor production and courier into the frontline ICU Covid wards immediately, and this has been achieved. In a few short weeks 9,000 visors will have been produced by our community team by the end of the Easter Weekend. 6,000 visors created and delivered within two weeks.

With the support of Just Giving we’ve been able to bulk buy (plus some donations) all our materials for this project. The @datareprographics team made up “Visor Assembly Pack Kits “ (50 per pack) which were then collected by our volunteers to assemble from home or their own studios. Each pack comes with a set of instructions. Social distancing and lockdown rules were followed at all times. The welfare of everyone paramount. All the while Matthew & Faye have been working tirelessly from their dining room table.

Visors were returned, packaged and boxed up for delivery into NHS frontline. Some of our visors were assembled in the morning and being worn on frontline ICU Covid in the evening. The beauty of our small project has been our ability to deliver small quantities quickly. And that’s what inspired this project and its “urgency” understood by all of us involved. Please see update section for some photos and comments from hospitals.

Our visor is made of acetate, foam, foamalite and Velcro. Acetate 300 micron has been used so far in our 9,000 production. Our visor is A3 cut size so covers around the face very well. Reports are they are very comfortable to wear. Foam is a form of plastic and is oil based, therefore the visor can be cleaned and reused more than once.

This is small scale project but has been making a difference in a big way right now. Please know every Visor we make is needed yesterday! We know that Hospitals are making up their PPE in many different ways from help from the public. Remember a single pair of googles donated protects a health worker, patients plus many more. No time to lose lets just make them now and donate. In situations like these, its all about fast mobilization of resources as “normal supply chains” struggle to deliver. This is where community projects & donations can help in the short term.

We are not a replacement for any PPE that organisations can obtain from NHS. We are not official PPE. We are merely responding to the call from the NHS to help with donations. Our work is the equivalent of ”melting down iron gates to make shot” In a war! We are helping where we can, donating to hospitals and sending our supplies quickly. The reality in a pandemic is that the country needs the community to help in many ways. The NHS have approved 3D Visors and they are arriving in bulk on the frontline now. But shortfalls are likely to continue, so please help us continue and support our NHS and health workers as long as we are needed.

All monies raised will go towards material costs and delivery, overhead costs are kept to a minimum as we are all volunteers “VisorArtDept Team”. Any funds left will be donated to a charity for our health workers (yet to decide!). We are yet to access any funds from Just Giving, £7,300 of our own money has been spent so far. This project is low key as our focus is delivery, but we need a bit of coverage to raise funds.

We hope too that that you may be inspired by what our community has created together. Maybe you can do the same in your area or you are already doing? The goodwill and trust of community is central to this Project. C-19 might be creating physical social distance but... it is also bringing us all together.

Marie Gallagher 🌈 Twickenham Resident (updated 11 Apr)

Useful Links & further information

Follow us on instagram. click here visorartdept story in compilation

Watch video. click here Matthew Jones Making a Visor Demo

Matthew Jones Visor Spec. Click here (to be uploaded shortly)

James O,Brian Unsung Heroes thanks Marcus High Wycombe@ 8 mins

Paul Morphy v Duke Karl 1858 chessgames.com ... if you travel the road complacent when trouble presents then there can only be panic. Between those two places there is “Preparedness”. When we think deeply we can create strategy, short term plans and intuitive actions that bring preparedness. Thinking deeply includes our heart intelligence, intuition. This chess game shows the beauty of a clear mind and using all your resources brilliantly.

VisorArtDept Team contributors

(please email me if your not on this list and should be here! if you are part of the creative team please email magall@btopenworld.com so I can add your details. Marie X)

Data Reprographics

Statement Chairs

Machineshopsfx

CP Cases Limited

donations/supplies - thank you :-

Velta Couriers

VelcroBrand

CMS - Thetford

E & A Wates Limited

Access Isleworth branch

Lok n Store Sunbury

Big Yellow

@notlamb Instagram Consultant