Who We Are
Staff
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Founder, Co-Director
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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Co-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 for 3 years and is also 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, she has felt how invaluable the MakerSpace is for our community and is excited to now be a part of the team, promoting classes and events and managing our Instagram account.
Emily also loves to spend time outside adventuring and finding inspiration in the natural world, which she uses in her visual art and drawing practice.
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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I started my 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. 2 years later, I hit the road in an old veggie oil powered school bus that served as my 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. 9 years later my wife and I put roots down in Goldendale, WA, where I continue 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 has always been an integral part of the craft for me and I’m excited to dedicate more time sharing my experience with people and learn from them as well. Fun fact: In 2019 I won The History Channel’s Season 6, Ep.27 “Forged in Fire” bladesmithing competition.
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Woodturning Instructor and Board Member
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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Claire grew up in Oregon and spent much of her childhood sewing costumes and building elaborate forts. As an adult she has continued to weave both of those passions into real life applications.
She studied product design at U of O with a focus in soft goods, and loves patterning and making her own outdoor gear. Claire has spent the more recent years honing her skills as a carpenter and general contractor. She loves working with her hands and especially enjoys working with others to bring their own designs to life.
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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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I 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. My focus has primarily been cabinetry and furniture with a dash of small projects as time allows. I delight in opportunities to share what I have learned with new and aspiring woodworkers. Let’s build something!
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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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Megan Mesloh is a textile artist and educator living in Hood River, Oregon. She has taught craft curriculum for ten years, with a focus on plant foraging, natural dyes, and weaving. She received a BFA in Textiles from Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2014. Through place-based exploration (foraging plants specific to a region, terrain or season) and a deep curiosity for the natural world, Megan has built a relationship with dye plants and natural fibers as a way to re-connect to where things come from and how they are made.
www.mmesloh.com
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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.