Continuing to paint with hand pain and osteoarthritis - the birth of Gripz Sher-Hold devices

Greetings from Gripz, LLC!  We’re a small, 2-person, senior citizen-owned company that seeks to find solutions to hand dexterity issues.  One of us, Lynn, has hand osteoarthritis which prevented her from continuing her painting in her retirement.  Her hand therapist was very helpful in suggesting ways to reduce the pain, but there was little to offer to reduce the pinching required in handling artists’ paintbrushes.  Indeed, the devices that were available – foam tubing and hand braces – weren’t amenable to painting; the foam tubing didn’t fit over the paintbrush handles, and the braces were too restrictive for fine artwork creation.  

At this juncture, along came Lynn’s friend, Sherwood, who developed a revolutionary device (the Sher-Hold device) that would slide over the paintbrush handle to enlarge the grasp and prevent Lynn’s thumb and fingers from pinching, thereby allowing her to continue painting.  We showed the prototype device to Lynn’s hand therapist, who explained that the device was relieving stress on the thumb CMC and MCP joints by abducting the joints and putting the thumb and fingers into a more comfortable, “C”-position.

From this beginning, Gripz, LLC, was born.  We found a manufacturing partner in FAME 3D in Fargo, ND, who assisted in refining the Sher-Hold prototypes.  We started with a line of paintbrush handle Sher-Holds, then expanded the line to include Sher-Holds for eating utensils, writing utensils (which also function for paintbrushes), crochet hooks, and guitar picks.  We offer a variety of shapes and sizes for individual hand sizes and preferences.  

The goal of Gripz, LLC, is to help people maintain their independence while performing activities of daily living, and allow them to pursue their creative passions, for more hours at a time and for many years to come.  

We hope you will share Sher-Holds with your patients by including a representative sample in your repertoire of device solutions.  As a small, start-up company, we welcome your feedback on our products and your suggestions for other applications.