Fabrication is a fundamental method of making objects. After an initial ideation, planning, and design phase eventually materials must be manipulated, transformed, and assembled into the intended form. This process is called fabrication.
The process of using tools and fabricating objects to change ourselves and our environment is as fundamental to our species as out less desirable traits. Children love to build with blocks and make structures out of sticks or boxes.
If you have ever used tape or glue to attach something together or used a paper clip or stapler to attached paper together then you have fabricated something. More complex methods of fabrication make everything that you can see in the world.
Getting Started with Fabrication
One of the best ways to learn how to make a fabricate objects is to simply make and fabricate many objects. You will learn from success and failures.
The first step of making to to have an idea. Ideas in your head are less useful than ideas that have been put into words with writing or made visual with sketching . As an idea develops begin to think about what materials will give the desired outcome of your idea. The specific materials and design will start to narrow down what Tools and methods that you could use. It may be necessary to make small mock-ups or prototypes of your design to test out how forms and materials will interact. A mock-up or maquette can me made of cardboard, Paper-Maché , or virtually with 3D-Modeling .
The tools available for fabrication are simply too numerous for anyone to have a full understanding of them. It is best to start with gaining familiarity with making things with your hands, then using simple hand tools, progressing to larger and more complex fabrication machinery, and ultimately exploring digital fabrication techniques.
Your hands are your default making devices. A lot can be made by digging in the dirt and smushing mud together with your hands. Unfortunately hands are fragile and easily damaged. A better idea might be to pick up a nearby stone to dig with in the dirt instead of your less durable fingernails. Soon you will notice that parts of the stone cut into your hand and it is not comfortable to hold. Suddenly you start banging and scraping the stone against other rocks to make parts of it smooth and fit into your had. Now you are fabricating.