Festival of Stuff: Saturday Extravaganza

For the 2022 Festival of Stuff listing, taking place on Sat 25th June, please click here https://www.instituteofmaking.org.uk/events/detail/festival-of-stuff-saturday-extravaganza2 

Location: Institute of Making, Malet Place, UCL, London, WC1E 7JE. Map.

The Festival of Stuff finale is back and bursting with delectable making madness as we once again fill the street outside the Institute of Making with demonstrations and making stations.

Come along to celebrate processes and materials from chimney furnaces to monster slimes and an algae beauty bar to the Great Glue Off. 

The Festival heats up with a magnificent travelling chimney furnace to melt and pour liquid bronze in to sand moulds with Coles Castings. On a similar metal theme, you can try making-your-own ferrofluid (magnetic liquid) with Dr Anna Ploszajski or cast pewter into a cuttlefish shell, while listening to the sweet sound of a steel drum band. The day also brings back a few of our all time favourites from the year gone by and... hang on, did someone just say 'slime'? Throughout the day the Institute of Making team will be mixing up a bucket of monster goo for you to poke and prod as an homage to our most popular open day ever.

Do you have what it take to produce a perfectly smooth wooden cube through six grades of sand paper and a lot of elbow grease? 'Finishing' techniques take centre-stage at this year's Extravaganza, with a whole section of making stations dedicated to sanding, polishing, glueing, shining and generally buffing up materials like wood, metal and more. Master plasterers, expert metal workers and deft wood polishers will show their mastery over finishing techniques while Institute of Making research fellow Dr Sarah Wilkes will give your own finished piece a once over with her turbo microscope and extensive knowledge of nano-surfaces.

Textile artist Lorna Hamilton-Brown will be teach visitors how to finger-knit with reflective wool while Janneke van Leeuwen will ask you to put on a VR headset to experience her Colour Rooms installation. Next door, our personal chemistry hero Andres Tretiakov pulls some explosive moves and makes the day go with a bang!

To recover from all that excitement, retire to our plant-powered algae beauty bar and experiential algae walkway, set up by chemical engineer and queen of algae, Dr Brenda Parker and her algae gang. After your spa, pick up an ice cream oyster and agar pearl from researcher Ellie Doney, and a free coffee from marvellous baristas Coffee Geek & Friends. 

Alternatively explore the strange beast that is the Institute of Making shop and marvel at the Materials Library inside the Makespace. All this and much more will be at our Saturday Extravaganza for exploring, creating and turning on its head.

The majority of the festival is wheelchair accessible, if you have any access questions email events@instituteofmaking.org.uk.

Free, open to all, drop in from 1pm, gates close at 5pm.

Please let us know if you have any access requirements in order to attend this booking by emailing members@instituteofmaking.org.uk.

Contact events@instituteofmaking.org.uk if you have any additional questions.

We look forward to seeing you soon!