The Peninsula’s maker community — a scrappy crowd of amateur engineers, artists and craftsmen — might feel like refugees scrambling for a new home.
For years, many makers have relied on Techshop, a popular membership workspace that provided a suite of industrial laser cutters, lathes and other expensive gear. The shop had everything you might need to launch a manufacturing start-up, or to just print out some spare Lego pieces.
But then came the bad news: In November, Techshop abruptly declared bankruptcy and closed all of its locations, including its workspaces in San Jose, Redwood City and San Francisco. Since then, many Techshop “orphans” have been yearning for some new workshop to fill the void.
For these lost souls, Elisabeth Sylvan is rolling out the welcome mat. Sylvan, a former vice president at the San Jose Tech Museum, is now Foothill College’s “Maker in Residence.” In that…