What’s a ‘maker space’? Think of a gym, “except instead of gym equipment, we have tools,” said Doug Clarke, founder of Kre- 8Now Makerspace in Lexington. “My business brings together people who like to build stuff and I provide the tools and the space to do it.”
Clarke formed the business in October 2012. At the time, he and five other people were interested in a maker space. Now more than 100 members of the maker community take advantage of the equipment and tools in the building.
As Kre8Now Makerspace founder Doug Clarke describes it, “my business brings together people who like to build stuff and I provide the tools and the space to do it.”
Clarke moved Kre8Now from Manchester Street to an 8,700-square-foot facility on Codell Drive, near Woodhill Circle Plaza on New Circle Road, at the beginning of June. There’s a machine shop and welding shop, sewing machines and quilting machines, 3D printers and screen printing equipment, hand tools and a laser engraver — even a podcast recording studio. As for the capabilities of the fully equipped woodworking shop, Clarke said: “What aren’t people making here?” He has seen Kre8Now members making everything from small trinkets to large pieces of furniture.
Membership is on a monthly basis, with no long-term commitments required, at $75 per month or a family plan of $115 for up to five members of a family. “Once you’ve been cleared on the tools, you’re allowed to come in here 24/7,” Clarke said.
Lexington-based violin maker and Kr8Now member Ben Mason works on a project.
Kre8Now Makerspace also has seven offices laid out as business incubators, which are leased at $250 per month. ArtLab Kentucky is a graduate, so to speak, of Kre8Now’s incubator space, and current tenants include Martin Metalworks, Longtail Designs and Mason Violins. “These are just some of the successful businesses we’ve helped to incubate,” Clarke said. “Then there are the countless individual makers who have come to the Makerspace and learned a new skill or skills to either propel their careers further or open up new opportunities.”
With fellow entrepreneurial business partners David Helmers, David Hempy and Michael Kreisle, Clarke has been able to put tools and technology into the hands of the people who want to use them, accompanied by the spirit of collaboration. “Kre8Now Makerspace is a community workshop, with an emphasis on community,” Clarke said. “We’ve had to put strict guidelines in place to keep folks safe and comfortable visiting the Makerspace.”
Now that masks and social distancing protocols are in place, workshops and classes have resumed. Kre8Now members can take an introduction to screen printing class or a design and draw class, learn how to work with resin for artistic projects, how to cut flat sheet metal into shapes with the plasma cutting table, or sign up for an arc welding workshop.
No stranger to working with tools and high-tech equipment himself, Clarke worked on flight simulators when he was a civilian contractor for the Air Force; he earned a degree in computer-aided drafting from Bluegrass Community Technical College in 2010, where he also took tool and die classes and welding classes; and he has a day job at Xometry as a water jet operator, cutting metals with high-pressure machines.
“We’ve always wanted to make access to tools, knowledge and high-tech equipment accessible to everyone,” Clarke said. “So, our price structure is very low. But we still have to balance that out with the cost of rent, utilities, insurance, upkeep of equipment and compensation for instructors.” And even though it’s tough, he thinks “it’s worth having a place like this available to the community.”