CLAREMONT — Artist Jane Kolias likes to forage for metal.

Those skills are essential to the recycled metal sculptures she creates — a Christmas tree made of wrenches and an old file, a singer with a body made of a piece of a Singer sewing machine — which she pointed out in her workshop space at the Claremont Makerspace as a dim gray light poured through the windows of the old brick building.

Kolias’ work is a good fit for the space — the Claremont Makerspace itself is repurposed from a building that was originally part of the Sullivan Machine Company, which operated in some form for about a century beginning in 1868.

“It’s a great reclamation of this old building, this beautiful building,” Kolias, of Poultney, Vt., said in an interview at her workshop last week.

The Claremont Makerspace — a nonprofit organization located at 56 Main St. — opened in 2018 to great fanfare in downtown Claremont. One of the concepts behind makerspaces is to provide tools and spaces for people to rent to use to “make” things from wooden shelves to metal jewelry to quilts to large prints of photographs they’ve taken.

Members pay fees to access equipment, instructors teach classes and community members have a chance to be inspired by each other’s creativity. Makerspaces can also create opportunities for entrepreneurship; members can sell what they make or learn skills that they can use in the workforce.

The Claremont Makerspace got off to a decent start, said Executive Director Felicia Dalke. Then the COVID-19 pandemic started and plans for growth were put on pause.

“We’ve been dormant and we’ve been status quo, and now I think we’re expanding,” said Dalke, who began her role in February after the nonprofit had gone about 18 months without a leader. Dalke has lived in Claremont since 2009 and previously served as president of the Claremont Opera House Board of Directors.

Dalke is currently the only full-time employee, but is in the process of hiring someone to oversee education and workforce programs. There also is a part-time employee who oversees member services.

Part of the Makerspace’s expansion has been bringing back an artist-in-residence program, which relaunched with Kolias this fall after a roughly three-year hiatus. The plan is to have each artist serve a three-month term, during which they teach classes and work with area students.

In a way, Kolias’ art connects to another mission the Claremont Makerspace is embracing: workforce development.

“I really have a passion for introducing women to roles that they might not consider, that are interesting, that are fun, and that pay well,” Kolias said.

The organization earned a nearly $350,000 grant in 2022 from the Northern Border Regional Commission to work with area businesses to train people on skills. Part of the rou ghly two-year plan calls for working with area employers to figure out the types of skills they are looking for in their employees and then develop training programs at the makerspace.

“We will build our programs based on their needs as it relates to machining and welding or woodworking or any of those types of roles where they have a need for skilled employees,” Dalke said.

The variety and number of classes are also growing. Silver ring making, stick welding and a wooden cutting board class were among the most popular ones in October.

There are around 90 members and 21 instructors, Dalke said. That’s up from eight instructors in February when Dalke started, but below the 31 there were in 2019.

“We’re always looking for instructors,” she said, adding that members have expressed interest in having more carpentry and fiber arts classes.

For the first time since 2019, the ClaremontMakerspace now has instructors trained on the makerspace’s plasma cutter, which is used to cut metal, Dalke said.

This year, Tim Renner, program manager for learning and development at Lebanon-based Hypertherm, ran two training programs on the plasma cutter machine. Hypertherm manufactures plasma and laser cutting machines, among other products.

“It’s fantastic,” Renner said in a phone interview about the Claremont Makerspace. The first class he taught was only supposed to be around 2½ hours long but lasted around four hours “because they had such great questions,” he said.

Dalke is also working on strengthening partnerships with other Upper Valley nonprofit organizations, including White River Junction-based Cover Home Repair. About 20% of the home repair projects Cover staff and volunteers work on are in Claremont, Executive Director Helen Hong said.

By working with the makerspace, Cover can reach more potential volunteers in Claremont, where the organization doesn’t have it’s own physical space.

“We’re so aligned. We’re reaching out to a population who loves working with their hands,” Hong said. “There’s a creative side. People want to do good.”

For more information about the Claremont Makerspace, including classes, membership rates and volunteer opportunities, visit claremontmakerspace.org. Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.