The prompt was to make an object that makes a sound using just wood, cotton strings and 1" steel balls. The catch was that the sound had to be specific and regular, which means that the sound had to be the same every time the user plays it, and the sound has to be controllable by the user. This was to prevent the students from basically making a shaker by making a wooden container and putting steel balls in them. I ended up using just wood and cotton strings for my project.

I created a wooden box that would make a ticking sound when the user pulled on the string on the side. The sound is made by a rotating wheel hitting a wooden pedal inside the object. However I tried to show as little of its mechanism from outside the box to garner curiosity. I also gave my object an antique finish for the same reason. I wanted the user to be excited before pulling on the string, but think 'that's it?' after pulling.

I put about 3kms of string inside the object so that the user could pull-away to his/her heart's content. The string can be pulled back to the object by rotating the handle at the back of the object. The handle was made with a big wooden dowel and two smaller dowels. The ring for the pulling string was made through laser cutting. 

Object in action: