Shouty camera and high-five machine among wacky inventions on display at pop-up shop

A derelict shop in Fawcett Street has been turned into a temporary exhibition space for Inventors!

More than a dozen children from Sunderland and South Tyneside will have their finished products from the Inventors! project on show and hundreds more will have their original drawings of wacky inventions on display.

The project is the brainchild of Sunderland-born artist and inventor Dominic Wilcox who was commissioned by the Cultural Spring, a three-year Arts Council funded initiative in north Wearside and South Tyneside.

Young people were invited to workshops held within schools and other venues during October and November.

More than 600 drawings of inventions were submitted, with a selection chosen by a panel going forward to a creation stage.

These inventions have been made into working prototypes, models or animations in time for them to be put on display in the shop at 18 Fawcett Street.

Visitors to the shop can check out the inventions which include an umbrella for ladybirds, a splat baby holder, a self-watering pot, a shouty camera, reverse binoculars and a high-five machine.

Dominic said: “More than 500 people took part in our workshops and we’ve had hundreds of inventions ideas that feature alongside the dozen or so ideas that we’ve turned into real-life inventions.

“We’ve teamed up with manufacturers, artists and tradespeople from across Wearside and South Tyneside and they’ve been hard at work bringing the children’s drawings to life.”