Birdhouse Workshop

In this course, you will learn how to design and craft a birdhouse for our little friends. We will go through the whole design process together: Research, sketching, cardboard prototyping, digital design, and fabrication. At the end of the course, you’ll not only have a birdhouse, but learn a design process you can use for your other crafting projects.

The course will start with two weeks of online classes, where we will cover how to do research, sketching, planning, and making prototypes out of cardboard. In the next weeks, we will move to the Makerspace, where I will show you how to re-create your designs digitally using Inkscape. Finally, we will use the laser cutter to fabricate your birdhouses and bring them to life. Besides the laser cutter, you can use the other tools in the makerspace (hand tools, power tools, 3D printers, vinyl cutter) and make additions to your design using materials of your choice.
You don’t need to have any experience with crafting, design software or laser cutting. The course is designed for beginners. If you’ve already been making crafting projects but want to learn digital tools or laser cutting, this course is also for you!

After this course, you’ll be able to:
•Apply the design process you learned to your future crafting projects
•Use Inkscape for creating 2D digital designs
•Convert your 2D designs into 3D objects by laser cutting
•Familiarize yourself with how to operate a laser cutter (available in some public libraries if you’d like to continue after the course)
•Enjoy watching visitors to your birdhouse

The course will start with two weeks of online classes on the Zoom platform. The lessons are real time. You can find the link to your online lessons in Ilmonet on the first course day at the latest, and the link will be available there throughout the course. Log in to Ilmonet, select My account and then My courses. You can find the link in the course information (see instructions under Attachments). If you can’t find the link, please contact espoon.tyovaenopisto@omnia.fi. Instructions for the online teaching platform(s) can be found below under Links.