Forging Ahead

Jeran Bruce Opens an Engineering Makerspace on Via De La Paz

By LILY TINOCO | Assistant Editor

Santa Monica native Jeran Bruce has brought his engineering expertise to Pacific Palisades—ready to provide mentorship and tools to the youth in an engineering makerspace for students 10 to 18 years old.

Owned and operated by Bruce, Forge Makerspace opened in December 2023. Located at 869 Via De La Paz, it offers students access to engineering tools, such as 3D printers, laser cutters, and hand and power tools.

Bruce grew up in Santa Monica, he told the Palisadian-Post, 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 attended University of California, Santa Barbara, and earned a degree in mechanical engineering before working as an intern at Tesla. After interning, he had the idea to open a 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.”

Forge Makerspace has open hours of “workshop time” every day—described as unstructured time for students to use the workshop and tools for their own projects. Students have the option to drop in for $25 per hour or pay $300 per month for unlimited time. In the unlimited plan, all weekly classes are included at no extra charge, and members have their own storage space in the workshop to leave projects.

“There currently isn’t anything else out there like this, at least in LA, and without a parent who has experience in this stuff, students wouldn’t get exposure to these tools,” Bruce said to the Post. “In our world of electronics overload, it seems that many young adults are missing out on learning to work with their hands. Being creative and building things.”

Bruce explained that for young adults interested in pursuing engineering at the university level or as a career, hands-on work is the “number one” way to better their chances of being accepted into engineering schools, as well as landing internships and jobs.

“I know first-hand from working on the battery engineering team at Tesla that recruiters want to see real hands-on experience, not just book knowledge,” Bruce explained. “Having done many of my own personal engineering projects was a big part of why I got my job at Tesla in the first place.”

Of choosing the Palisades, Bruce said he spent a lot of time in the town growing up and saw the value in opening the workshop in the community.

“The Palisades seemed like the perfect place,” he said. “Everyone is so community oriented … And this location popped up and ended up being exactly what I needed, in terms of size. I didn’t want to start too big, I wanted to start small and see if people were interested in it.”

Bruce said the experience has been gratifying.

“It’s so wonderful to see groups of kids actually using the tools and learning things at even a younger age than when I started,” he said. “And knowing how much that is going to compound over the … years before they go to college and how much more they’re going to learn is really incredible to think about. So far, it has been awesome.”

Forge Makerspace is open Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 3 p.m. For more information, visit forgemakerspace.com.