“We exist to get people making things because we believe that when you start making things with your hands, it’s transformative,” said Kelly Yamanishi, the co-executive director of Maker Nexus. “There’s a lot of joy and accomplishment and confidence-building that comes from learning how to make things with your own hands, how to prepare things. How to be more of a maker, less of a consumer.”

It’s a sentiment that hundreds of makers in the South Bay Area share. With over 560 members, Maker Nexus in Sunnyvale invites its members to create things with their hands. Makers like Amy Lee get to explore their creativity at the warehouse space at 1330 Orleans Dr. For Lee, who came from the tech industry, it’s a different type of creativity.

“I came from the tech industry, computer coding. I was like, ‘Hey, I wonder if I can do woodworking.’ Over the past year, I’ve taken so many classes of woodworking. And then I started branching out into laser cutting, metal working and textiles,” said Lee. “Maker Nexus is one of those places where you have this little bit of interest, and suddenly you have access to an entire world of technology. Oh, my goodness, yes, you’ll be sucked in.”

Lee loves the support she finds with other members of the Maker community.

“I’m always learning something. I’m always seeing a new technique. Or I’ll just look over another table and I’ll just kind of walk over and be like, ‘Oh, I did not know you could do that.’ And suddenly that sparked this new creative streak. Now I’m learning new things. I’m seeing better ways of doing things,” said Lee.

Makers can also seek support in the active Slack community.

“We have a really active member community. So, if you need to know where to source materials, there’s always someone who can help you out. Or point you to a vendor, share their experiences,” said Yamanishi. “Really a big part of what we do is the community of makers interacting with each other and supporting one another to make projects, and we’re friends.”

As a nonprofit, Maker Nexus works hard to support the community. It welcomes homeschool groups, supports local high schools with shop training, sponsors kids from Sunnyvale Community Services and Jonathan Katz Moses Woodworkers with Disabilities Program and allows local community organizations to use the space as their meeting spaces.

“We try to stay very integrated with the community and because we are a nonprofit, we can help other nonprofits out, give them the space to meet, help spread the word about making,” said Yamanishi.

Maker Nexus is a 510(c)3 nonprofit. Membership is $160 per month and it gives members full access to all the heavy-duty, commercial-grade equipment once they’re trained on it. Makers just need to bring their own materials for their projects. For more information about Maker Nexus, visit makernexus.org.

“I really think that the more that people learn how to make stuff, the more they realize it’s within their reach,” said Lee. “Just come on down. Learn the skills. It’s not that hard. There’s people to help you. We have a wiki of knowledge, and there’s always people like myself that are doing stuff and trying to build ideas in actual, real life. So, it’s really satisfying.”

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