Build confidence with everyday DIY.
Makeology is exploring a series of friendly, beginner-focused workshops for adults around Horsham. The aim is simple: to help people feel more confident using tools and tackling straightforward practical jobs at home.
No previous experience is needed and nothing is assumed. Each session would start from the beginning, move at a pace that suits the group and give you time with the tools in your own hands — so you leave knowing how to approach the job waiting for you at home.
Status
These workshops are being planned and are not yet booking. Dates, venue, price and final arrangements are still to be confirmed.
Drilling, fixings and power-tool confidence
Pilot ideaThis is the workshop we're developing first. It's a practical, hands-on session built around the jobs people actually want to do at home — putting up a shelf, hanging a mirror, fixing something that has come loose — and it assumes you've never picked up a drill before.
Understanding the common tools
Get to know a cordless drill and driver, what the different bits are for, and how to hold and use them safely and accurately.
Choosing suitable fixings
Learn how wall plugs, screws and anchors differ, and how to pick a fixing that suits the surface and the weight it has to hold.
Practising basic techniques
Drill straight, drive screws cleanly and work neatly — practising on your own piece of material rather than watching someone else.
Gaining confidence through guided practice
Work through each step with the instructor beside you, asking questions as they come up and repeating anything you want to get right.
This is the pilot workshop we intend to run first. Content, length and materials are proposed and still to be confirmed.
Practical, supportive and unhurried.
The workshops are being designed for adults who want to have a proper go, in a setting where it's fine to be new to it. You'd be guided through every step and given plenty of time to practise before you try anything on your own.
Small groups
Numbers would be kept deliberately small, so there's time for everyone to ask questions and get help with their own piece of work.
Hands-on from the start
Most of the session is spent with tools in your hands. Demonstrations are short and always followed by a go at it yourself.
Step by step, at your pace
Each technique is introduced, shown, then practised — with the instructor on hand to help you adjust, repeat or slow down.
No assumed knowledge
Everything is explained from the beginning and there are no silly questions. Safety comes first, without any jargon.
The intention is that you leave able to do the job you came for — and with the confidence to have a go at the next one.
Ideas we're exploring next.
Beyond the pilot workshop, these are the subjects we'd like to develop. Which of them we run, and in what order, depends on the interest we hear about.
Hand-tool basics
Saws, chisels, planes and measuring — the fundamentals of working accurately by hand and looking after your tools.
Simple household repairs
Adjusting doors and hinges, filling and sanding, sealing gaps and putting right the small things that have worked loose.
Basic plumbing
Washers, tap fittings, simple waste connections and how to deal with the everyday drips and leaks at home.
These are ideas being explored, not confirmed sessions — register your interest and tell us which you'd like first.
Andrew Rogers
Andrew Rogers is Director of Makeology and a Chartered Mechanical Engineer based near Horsham. Alongside his engineering career, Andrew is interested in helping children and adults gain confidence through practical activities — building, fixing, experimenting and learning by doing.
That interest is what Makeology is built around: hands-on STEM programmes for children, practical workshops for adults, and a permanent makerspace as the longer-term ambition.
- Name
- Andrew Rogers
- Role
- Director, Makeology
- Background
- Chartered Mechanical Engineer
- Based
- Near Horsham, West Sussex
Register your interest in Adult DIY workshops
The workshops are being planned for local venues around Horsham — village halls, community centres and similar spaces — so they can get going before the permanent makerspace opens. Dates, venue, price and final arrangements remain to be confirmed.
This is an expression of interest only. There is no booking, payment or commitment at this stage.
Prefer to write your own? Email hello@makeology.co.uk with the subject “Adult DIY workshop interest”, telling us your name, town, the topics you'd like covered and when you'd usually be available.