Visit Forge Makerspace on Via De La Paz During Open House

By LILY TINOCO | Assistant Editor 

An Open House for Forge Makerspace—hosted by the Malibu-Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce—is slated for Saturday, February 3, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The community is invited to tour the Via De La Paz space and meet owner, Jeran Bruce, who owns and operates the engineering makerspace, designed for students 10 years and older.

Bruce told the Palisadian-Post he grew up in Santa Monica and an interest in engineering sparked when he was just 12 years old.

“I was lucky enough that my dad was very hands-on, and got me interested in electronics and building things,” Bruce said. “Throughout all of middle and high school, I was just building projects like electric skateboards and solar panels for my room.”

He went on to attend the University of California, Santa Barbara, and earn a degree in mechanical engineering before working as an intern at Tesla. After interning, he had the idea to open the makerspace in the Palisades.

“This space provides the tools for the kids, and also provides mentorship and supervision,” Bruce explained. “It’s something that I wasn’t able to find as a kid, and I was lucky enough to have my dad to teach me about stuff, but not all students are … It’s definitely something that I would have been all over as a kid.”

Palisadian Holly Moss-Naim—who is the sales and marketing liaison for the chamber—said that as a mother and Palisadian, the arrival of Forge Makerspace “couldn’t have come at a better time for [the] neighborhood.”

“Forge Makerspace provides students with the opportunity for good, old-fashioned free play environment using cutting-edge tools,” Moss-Naim said to the Post. “So much of school and our kids’ lives are filled with programs and structure. It’s refreshing to have a local program that understands the importance of tinkering and playing to develop one’s own ideas.”

The Open House is a free event. Attendees will have the opportunity to see the workshop space and meet Bruce, and students can participate in a Toothpick Tower Design Competition using supplies in the workshop, which will be provided. The first 20 students to build a tower over two feet tall will win a 3D printing pen as a prize.

Forge Makerspace is located at 869 Via De La Paz, Suite C. For more information, visit forgemakerspace.com.