Just past Umgeni Road's dull business district and questionable cafés nestles a haven for creative Durbanites. The Foundry at 43 Station Drive is a former clothing factory that is now home to various studios, offices and shared working spaces.One of the exciting ventures brewing within its walls is The MakerSpace, a communal creative workshop where ordinary people can tinker with creative technologies such as 3D and laser-cutting machines or turn ideas into tangible objects.There, you can learn how to make something that's been languishing on your Pinterest "to-do" board - design and make a lamp, craft a leather wallet or phone pouch, or freestyle a fabulously fun but utterly useless machine.Mechanical engineer and businessman Steve Gray runs the facility alongside "chief maker and all-round helpful guy" Travis Benschop. Gray likes to call it a "gym for your creativity".The MakerSpace operates like a gym - anyone can sign up, whether they're creative professionally or recreationally. There is a sign-up fee of R350, which includes a membership card, an introductory laser- cutting course and a safety induction, and the setting up of other basic membership benefits.Each member commits to a monthly membership fee, which buys them a certain number of cutting, printing, laser-cutting and 3D-printing credits. The cheapest package is R100 a month. The most expensive - R3000 a month -is for a commercial membership for those looking to create things they intend to sell.The primary aim of the fledgling venture, said Gray, is to encourage the end-users of products to make them more meaningful by creating the things they need for themselves."The time for waiting for the Steve Jobses and Bill Gateses to tell us what to buy is over - let's put the power of making in the hands of the people."At the next class on September 3-5, learn to build a custom skateboard deck, R700. Visit themakerspace.co.zaMy experienceIt was the week before the Valentine's Day weekend when I roped photographer Rogan Ward into sacrificing his Saturday morning for a "job" making customised chopping boards for this article.I'd deliberated giddily over the possibilities from the moment I signed up for the class. Ultimately, I decided to make one of my best friends laugh by combining our shared love of bad puns and Star Wars to create a Yoda-themed chopping board.About eight other people had also signed up. We were first given a safety talk and an overview of how the laser machine worked, then we began drafting the designs we wanted to print onto our boards on paper.I quickly googled a Yoda drawing tutorial after a freehand attempt at it proved disastrous. Designs complete, we snapped images of them, uploaded them onto a simple design editing programme for tweaking, and converted the whole thing into a format which was compatible with the laser printing machine.We each got to position our chopping boards on the machine and flick the switch, with casual guidance from Gray and Benchop.Watching the laser beam etch my design onto the wood of the chopping board was an unutterably gratifying experience...