Back in the 1980s, parents and teachers alike worried that a generation of kids would drift away from reading and be seduced by the immersive delights of computer gaming. What many kids knew, however, was that you didn’t have to choose between books and games at all. A peculiar hybrid of the two - the gamebook - became a minor publishing phenomenon. Of all the competing choose-your-own-adventure titles that flooded the mid-Eighties market, few captured the imagination like the original Fighting Fantasy series by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.

An air of busy calm greets me as I walk onto the top floor of Bristol’s Cameron Balloon factory. Considering this company is the largest manufacturer of hot air balloons in the world, my novice expectations of behemoth machinery raging back and forth in huge production lines are somewhat undone by the sight of six women sitting at industrial sewing machines, dotted around the farthest edges of the vast room, quietly stitching.

This year Birmingham Royal Ballet celebrates 25 years in the city, during which time the company has presented more than 130 different ballets. Over the years, Birmingham Royal Ballet has worked with some of the biggest names in theatrical design, art and fashion, including Jasper Conran OBE, John Macfarlane, Philip Prowse and Katrina Lindsay. To mark their silver jubilee, the company has teamed up with House of Fraser’s Birmingham store to display a few highlights from their extensive catalogue of costumes.

Over the past few months of We Made It, we've explored some very traditional crafts, but few that have such a direct link to the distant past as this. Malcolm Rees is one of a handful of people in South Wales keeping the culture of coracle building and fishing alive, having grown up around generations who built and used the unique boats, which were once admired by Julius Caesar.

If you’ve read any of the glowing reviews for the current revival of Caryl Churchill’s cloning play A Number, you’ll know all about the extraordinary set. Produced at the Nuffield in Southampton last year and transferred to the Young Vic this week, the intense production places father-and-son performers John and Lex Shrapnel inside a mirrored box where their every move is reflected infinitely. The audience is split into four around its edges, and watches the action through one-way glass. In between scenes, the mirror effect is reversed and the audience sees itself reflected.

Zurich, London, New York…Somerset. It may seem unlikely, but an 18^th-century farm in the West Country is the new place to be for contemporary art aficionados. Last year, renovations were completed on the 10 buildings of Durslade Farm, left to fall into disrepair over decades. Now, the world-class arts centre boasts five gallery spaces, the Roth Bar & Grill – where locally sourced produce meets bold, eclectic installations – shop, guest house, library and learning room, backed by Piet Oudolf’s sumptuous 1.5-acre perennial meadow.

Jonathan Thomas helped set up Thomas Heatherwick Studios, having met the man behind the Olympic Cauldron, new double-decker bus and potentially the controversial new Garden Bridge at university. Along the way, Thomas left to form Make Ltd and now Maker. He mixes modern materials and techniques with traditional craftsmanship to create bespoke and handmade furniture and installations.

SIMON MUNK: What attracted you to making things with your hands?

The English abstract artist Rebecca Salter has definitely made it. A major retrospective of her work in 2011 at the Yale Center for British Art, "Into the light of things: works 1981-2010”, included more than 150 works. She was elected a Royal Academician earlier this year. And her long involvement with Japanese art has produced two books which are the standard works in English: Japanese Woodblock Printing (2001) and Japanese Popular Prints (2006), both published by A&C Black.