In the UK during March 2008, Blu-Tack changed colour for the first time since 1971 – to pink – to help raise money for Breast Cancer Campaign. 20,000 numbered packs were made available, 10% from each pack going to the charity. The formulation was slightly altered to retain complete consistency with its blue counterpart. Since then, many coloured variations have been made, including the green (Halloween pack), red and white.
Blu-Tack is also used for sculpture. Artist Elizabeth Thompson created a giant 200 kilogram sculpture of a spider using Blu-Tack over a wire frame. It took 4000 packs and was exhibited at London Zoo in 2007. Other artists have created works from the material, and there is a large international body of dedicated users of Blu-Tack who create minor art works and stop-motion animation. The British Blu-Tack web site takes a keen interest in these activities and has a section devoted to them. There was also a man who put a thumb-print into a piece of Blu-Tack and sold it at an art auction for over £100,000.
This is not a putty rubber as you know it... Be prepared to have your technical illusions shattered - my preferred eraser (almost my only eraser) is not an eraser at all... but it is a tool of unsurpassed excellence! We know it here in the UK as r"Blu-Tackb" - the non-sticky putty that is used for fixing posters to walls. Yes, that's right, this stuff is God's own gift to graphite artists - and probably works as well with charcoal and pastel. Years ago I bought a batch of putty rubbers (kneaded erasers) that broke up in use and, in desperation, I grabbed a piece of Blu-Tack
An Eraser is not a Rubber: Hard rubbers rub, they do little more than force graphite deep into the paper. d"Art eraserse" and putty types remove graphite more softly but, as they still require a dragging movement to achieve results, a degree of graphite o"staininga" usually results. But Blu-Tack, as a result of its sticky nature, removes every grain of graphite without any detrimental movement. It's a graphite magnet! A quick downward touch embeds the grains for immediate and clean lifting.
