Who We Are
Staff
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Founder, Director of STEM Programs
Jack Perrin loves to share his passion for science and engineering by supporting young people as they design, tinker, and build.
Jack was born and raised in the Willamette Valley, and he began his career as a physics teacher in rural Turkey. After returning to the U.S. and completing his master’s degree, he moved to western Colorado, where he worked for a small non-profit school that focused on experiential education and travel.
While living in Colorado, he was a founding member of the Vision Charter Academy, a novel and successful program for homeschoolers, and a longtime counselor at Not Back to School Camp. He also built a solar-powered straw-bale house for his family and taught natural building workshops for almost a decade.
Jack guided professionally in Turkey for eight years and has traveled with students across the western U.S. and Mexico.
At home in the Pacific Northwest, he loves tromping through the understory in search of mushrooms and exploring new vistas by bicycle with his wife and daughter.
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Executive Director, Woodshop Manager
Jared grew up tinkering on anything he could find. His love for building and repair led him to a life of remodeling homes and helping others do the same. He has been teaching woodworking and home care skills throughout Oregon and Washington since 2015.
Jared gets excited about building community by learning and sharing new skills, especially with beginners and those who need it most. Our hands and connections are the most powerful tools we have! When he’s not teaching or tuning up the shop tools, you might find him in the garden or out riding his bike.
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Communications and Marketing Coordinator
Emily has lived in the Gorge since 2021 and is a graphic designer who works with many local, community-minded clients. She is most passionate about working on projects that give rise to expression, introspection, and connectivity. After taking several classes at the MakerSpace, she saw how invaluable it is for our community and knew she wanted to be more involved. In her spare time, you’ll find Emily in her art studio drawing and painting, learning more about woodworking, or wandering in the woods with her dog.
Instructors
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Molly Holmlund is an artist and educator living in White Salmon, Washington. Early exposure to the idea of nature as art gave Molly a fascination with the process of art and an appreciation of the natural world. Her current practice of making inks from foraged materials is an extension of this, collaborating with and learning from nature.
You can see Molly’s work here.
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Joe started his career in 2007 at the age of 23, on a permaculture farm in NH as a functional part of operations and income creation, and created a multi forge teaching facility. Two years later, he hit the road in an old veggie oil powered school bus that served as his home and mobile shop to explore the West (and as far south as Guatemala) as a self employed off-grid blacksmith dedicated to the exclusive use of scrap steels to make functional art. Nine years later Joe and his wife put roots down in Goldendale, WA, where Joe continues to make a living as a blacksmith and bladesmith who is still dedicated to scrap steel usage, and utilizing waste veggie oil as a fuel in a custom made forge furnace. Teaching and demonstrating have always been an integral part of the craft for Joe and he’s excited to dedicate more time to sharing his experience with people and learning from them as well.
Fun fact: In 2019 Joe won The History Channel’s Season 6, Ep.27 “Forged in Fire” bladesmithing competition!
See some of Joe’s work here.
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Marjin lives in White Salmon and has been woodturning for over 20 years. She slowly transitioned from woodworking/furniture making to turning after attending workshops with several nationally known woodturners. Several years ago, she attended the Escoulen School of Woodturning in France to continue deepening her skills. Her work covers the full range from functional to sculptural.
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Tamara is a Hood River local who owns a small Patisserie and loves to do everything and anything that has to do with using her hands and creativity.
Sewing is Tamara’s biggest passion aside from baking. She finds it truly magical what you can make with some fabric and thread when you set your mind and hands to it!
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Cass Estes is a multidisciplinary artist, embodiment coach, and shamanic practitioner based in Hood River, Oregon. She is devoted to helping others reconnect with their vitality, pleasure, and creative essence. Whether guiding clients through transformational coaching or leading hands-on creative workshops, Cass brings presence, beauty, and soulful attention to everything she creates. She believes in the magic of working with our hands, hearts, and intuition to remember our innate connection to beauty, purpose, and the sacred rhythms of life.
Find out more here.
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Russell has a lot of experience adventuring in the mountains and has always enjoyed making his own gear, modifying gear that just wasn't quite right, or just getting satisfaction out of making something last longer than it would have otherwise.
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Lacey enjoys finding local wood and working with it from tree to finished product. She’s drawn to making functional pieces, mainly working with wood but other enjoyable mediums too, including fabric, metal, clay, leather, glass and paper. She’s an artisan and can’t help but make things! Lacey finds great joy in sharing her love of making through teaching. Breaking down a process to its simplest form, creating an exercise to build skills and then helping students to use those skills for healthy self expression is a wonderful thing.
Lacey lives in Hood River with her husband and 3 daughters, all makers as well!
Lacey’s woodworking can be seen here
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Matt loves solving problems and figuring out new ways to make and build. He has experience building furniture with traditional joinery as well as creating sets for escape rooms! Mainly he has worked in wood, but enjoys adding mixed media to push design elements.
Matt loves to help people build and grow their craft. If you ever see him at an Open Shop, you can always ask for help!
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Bethany is a self-taught stained glass artist based in Hood River, Oregon. With a background in hydrogeology, Bethany draws inspiration from natural landscapes, water, plants, and florals. Bethany’s work seeks to be both visually pleasing and functional, bringing modern design and utility to a craft over a thousand years old.
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Sean grew up in Madison, WI, where he learned woodworking as a side hobby while attending college. A true DIYer at heart, Sean has been engaged in repair projects, auto mechanics, and home building since as long as he can remember. After living in Portland for the last 23 years working as a carpenter, cabinet maker, and landscaper, Sean now spends his time working on many projects on his off-grid property outside of Lyle.
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Eamon began as a hobbyist woodworker in 2014 and went pro in 2021. There’s no satisfaction quite like building something useful and/or beautiful from raw materials. Eamon’s focus has primarily been cabinetry and furniture with a dash of small projects as time allows. He delights in opportunities to share what he has learned with new and aspiring woodworkers.
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Sophie first learned to sew in middle school, guided by her mom. What started with simple jeans hemming grew into a deeper passion, eventually leading her to design and sew her own prom dress. She went on to study clothing, textiles, and design, building both technical skill and creative confidence. As a teacher, Sophie focuses on breaking down sewing techniques into clear, approachable steps, helping students build practical skills they can use right away. She spends her free time exploring the outdoors with her pup Koda.
itscoachsophie@gmail.com
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Anne learned to sew through 4H and Girl Scouts. She loves teaching beginners to sew, and finds it very rewarding to see how pleased and proud students are when they finish their first project. Anne hosts a weekly Sewing Circle where anyone with a little sewing experience can work on a sewing project in a friendly environment, with help available as needed. She also teaches our monthly beginner machine sewing classes.
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Steven is a craftsperson focused on the woodcraft skills of carving, turning and simple joinery. His aim is to set the table with the variety of wooden wares he makes such as cups, bowls, spoons, and plates to name a few. He is stewarding the slow mulch movement by making various sizes of wood chips with primarily hand tools. If you listen carefully, you may hear him thwacking away with his friends in the woods, the trees.
See Steven’s work here.
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Andi gets great joy from teaching others valuable life skills. She has taught basic sewing and fused glass classes at Gorge Maker Space. Being creative and teaching are in her blood. She was a teacher of children with special needs for all her adult life.
Andi also gets great pleasure from gifting something she has made and watching others do the same.
Andi and her husband Bob, who is very involved at GMS, moved to the beautiful Gorge to watch their grandsons grow up. You can usually find Andi outdoors enjoying many activities that are offered here, playing music with others or attending a musical event.
anditeach@gmail.com
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Lois began learning the art of stained glass at Everett Community College many years ago. After that she played with the craft by making window hangings. 20 years later, she now buys old doors, breaks out the glass, & installs her own creations. She is currently working on a 450-piece window!
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Luke is a Columbia Gorge transplant who has spent many years tinkering and repairing various sporting equipment with lots of time, and not so much money. After learning about fiberglass repair to fix a kayak paddle, he sought out instruction in building a carbon fiber kayak and learned from a master boat builder in Colorado. He’s excited to pass on the foundational knowledge to help people get back into the wind! Luke is currently pursuing a masters degree in clinical mental health counseling, teaches whitewater kayaking during the summer months, and loves to make bread and play outside on bikes or unicycles, take friends’ dogs for walks and get to know the Gorge community.
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Cameron has a background in Engineering Design and a passion for passion for Laser Cutting / 3D printing and all types of digital fabrication. He is hoping to get the wood CNC router and resin 3D printers set up in the space soon!
Cameron enjoys a variety of projects, from replicating costumes and props from pop-culture to creating custom 3D printed jigs and prototyping functional items.