Hey Everyone, welcome back to Cool Tool Thursday.
For years I have spent hours standing on concrete or ceramic tile floors to press, pin and cut material into pieces. Now it is not directly on concrete there is some carpet between my feet and the concrete but truth be told that carpet has very little cushion for my feet, legs and back. The tile had no extra cushioning what-so-ever.
A few weeks ago I thought I need to do something about this because I would go to bed and my legs would ache which of course resulted in a poor sleep. I was looking at purchasing a special mat to stand on that provides cushion for your feet and body. These mats are used in assembly line work, restaurant kitchens and many, many other work environments.
I told Michael what I was going to do and he said why don’t you just use the rubber/foam pads that we use as our flooring at CreativFestival. I actually hadn’t even thought of using them and we have a whole stack of them in the garage as you can see from the photo above. They are the foam tiles that interlock together like puzzle pieces. I decided to give them a go.
I put 2 down at the cutting table and 2 down at the ironing board as those are the places where I do the most standing.
Mats on the floor in my work areas
I have to say that they did help with fatigue in my feet, legs and back after a day in the studio – not even a day just a few hours.
The only draw back is that they do move around so I am going to have to secure them to the floor somehow – duct tape I think should do the trick. I also have to be careful not to trip over them which I have occasionally done.
So along with wearing good footwear the foam floor tiles have made a big difference in cushioning my feet from the concrete floor.
They also work great as a surface to block knitting, weaving or other small textile projects – it doesn’t matter if they get wet and you can pin into them because they are a foam rubber.
A bit of a strange quilting tool but definitely an important one to look after your feet, legs and back.
Happy Quilting
Brilliant idea and to stop them slipping there is that stuff you can put under carpets or anything small as well. It comes on a roll and I think you would buy it in a home depot type store. I have pieces under my desktop which is loose on top of supporting furniture. It is made of soft grippy plastic/silicone and is flexible.
Juliet thanks for the idea about the non slip grip stuff – I even have an unopened roll of it on my closet shelf that I bought a few years ago and never used. Now it has a purpose. Have a great day.
I have these by my cutting/pressing station and they are fantastic. I had to cut mine down because my sewing chair couldn’t roll over them which is to bad because that would save the carpet. Maybe someone has some ideas?