What are they building in there?

Having skills to make is one of the greatest liberators of students’ creativity. I have no doubt that making things with their hands is what students of technology, art and design love most. 3D printers and laser cutters are certainly valid and welcome tools but it’s my experience that pupils are much more creative when they are learning to manipulate different materials by hand.

In many secondary school DT departments, the hand tools which are gathering dust in the storeroom are often the ones students want to use as they directly facilitate putting the making process within the pupils’ reach. Hand planes and chisels are becoming almost obsolete in the workplace but it is precisely because they are hand tools that makes them safe for students to use and makes them valid:  tools that  help students realise their ideas, to problem solve autonomously, to become independent makers and thinkers - these are universal skills and the tools which encourage them are anything but obsolete.

Combining making by hand with computer aided manufacture, allows students to design and make work of real richness and validity. It is my wish to run courses for students wanting to continue to design and make in after school and holiday time, ‘The League of Fearless Designers’, is for students wanting to enhance their making skills in a non-school environment, learning from experienced practitioners.

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