Braille slates (shown above) have a hinge and open in two halves.  Thick braille paper is closed between the two halves.  The top half of the slate has holes in it and the bottom half has indentations.  The writing is done with a stylus (shown above) - a tool with a metal point on its end.  The stylus is used to punch out the braille characters one dot at a time on the slate.