Nathan Higa grew up working on cars and woodworking, and assumed making and fixing things was the natural order en route to becoming a man.

"I learned from my dad, who learned from his dad, and these are things I’m trying to teach my kids," he said.

He realized his upbringing was an anomaly when he was in high school. "People would ask me, ‘How’d you learn to do all this stuff?’ I thought everyone knew how to do this stuff."

He was mistaken, and now Higa, a member of Oahu Makerspace, and a whole bunch of local "makers" have banded together to host the Honolulu Mini Maker Faire from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at ‘Iolani School, addressing society’s burgeoning desire to reconnect with the human instinct to make things.

Last year’s inaugural fair drew more than 750 attendees, and this one promises to be much bigger, with more than 40 makers and maker groups featuring a range of interests from quilting, woodworking and Lego construction, to virtual reality, 3-D printing and robotics. The family-friendly event will feature music and food, workshops in soldering, drone races, a paper airplane design contest and a chance to sit for a 3-D portrait.

Just as matters of economics and convenience started driving people away from using their hands beginning in the 1950s, similar forces in the 1980s — recessions and job losses — started driving them toward discovering innate, marketable talents or a secondary income in jewelry making or baking, for instance. And, with cookie-cutter goods all around us, it became cool to be able to produce something unique. Etsy.com was born to share do-it-yourself creations.

Maker culture is a more community- and education-driven extension of DIY culture. It promotes learning through doing and sharing knowledge in a social environment, with the notion that an open exchange of ideas leads to more creativity and fun. On the tech side it marries modern electronics, robotics and 3-D printing with the traditional craftsmanship involved in metalworking, woodworking and other hands-on skills to speed up the process of invention and innovation.

Maker Media, which founded Make magazine in 2005, launched Maker Faire in 2006 to connect makers with one another, and the Honolulu Mini Maker Faire was licensed to use the name after organizers were able to prove an abundance of makers in Hawaii and demonstrate a track record of running successful events.

Participants represent a range of disciplines and interests, including Aloha Knitters, Hawaii Drone Club, Hapa Blacksmith, Urban Farming, 3D Design and Hawaii LEGO Users Group. Mini Maker Faire committee member Jon Shear, a woodworker, said many of the participants share one trait: "If you gave us a black box, we’d take it apart and figure out how it works."

There will also be representatives from a growing number of places that host maker activities, including HICapacity, Oahu Makerspace, The Makery-Hilo, Kauai Makerspace and Maui Makers.

THE IDEA of making objects with one’s hands conjures pastoral images of a Luddite fantasy: a woodshed, peace and quiet, and quaint hand tools. The reality is anything but. In fact, walking into Oahu Makerspace in Kalihi is intimidating, filled as it is with table saws and drill presses, the sort of things that can hurt the tool-challenged.

Luckily, members are eager to walk newcomers through use of laser engravers, computer-controlled milling machines, vinyl cutters, 3-D printers and more, making sure they understand how to use the equipment before setting them loose.

Taking up a quarter of the first-floor is a "yagura," or stage, belonging to the Honolulu Fukushima Bon Dance Club. More than 50 years old, the structure needs repair, and Oahu Makerspace has taken on the task as one of its handful of revenue-producing projects.

In another corner of the two-story building, member Reid Shigemura is creating his portable Pahulele ukulele with detachable neck, which he designed for traveling musicians who wanted something they could easily stow in a backpack.

Making things came naturally to him because he often watched his father, a luthier, repairing violins for symphony musicians. As symphonies declined, he said, his father made the transition to ukulele.

Shigemura said the appeal of makerspaces has become crucial to creative types.

"You could spend tens of thousands of dollars for these machines. To accumulate everything a project needs by yourself is difficult," he said. "A lot of people don’t have space like this. They don’t live in houses with garages, and even if they do, they can’t work without bothering the neighbors."

The equipment is an assemblage of member contributions, community-donated items, and creations built by founder Ross Mukai and other members. On their wish list is a CNC (computer-numerical-control) plasma cutter that will allow makers to cut through sheets of steel.

The grass-roots maker movement has become important as wood and metal shop classes are being cut from school curricula. It can also make STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) more relevant to students — who might not otherwise be interested in those fields — by emphasizing the practical, creative uses of science and technology.

"Schools can’t afford to run full wood shops, and auto classes are hard to find. You can learn welding at Honolulu Community College, at the University of Hawaii Art Department, or you’d have to take a professional class," Higa said. "It’s not easy to find someone who can teach you."

Most important to the makers is the idea of collaboration.

"Normally, all these people wouldn’t come together," Mukai said. "To get a woodworker and a metalworker sharing ideas with each other, each has their own focus and perspective, but they could create something better together, than as individuals working on their own."