About Lower 48

Turning a chunk of wood into something useful, beautiful, or new feels amazing. 

We think everyone should have a chance to feel that, but classes or equipment can be out of reach. The Lower 48 was built to welcome more people -- especially more women and people of color -- to the joy of turning wood into beautiful objects.

The Lower 48 is the brainchild of Jolie Karno, a skilled woodturner and accomplished instructor at Techshop in San Francisco and The Crucible in Oakland. She loves teaching, and has introduced scores of people to fine woodworking.

Why “The Lower 48"?
We started out at a maker space made up of Shipping containers. There are two stacked 48-foot containers at NIMBY. We are in the bottom 48-foot container, so we told visitors to come back to "the lower 48" ... the name stuck.