Former Baylor student starts woodworking business

Baylor alumnus Hunter Gorman created a custom craft shop, E2 Creative, after graduation. Gorman makes handcrafted products such as swings, tables, bed frames, cutting boards and many others. Photo credit: Photo courtesy of Carter Rodman

By Seth Jones | Reporter

During his time as a student at Baylor, Hunter Gorman found a true passion that he believed could be a potential career. By the time Gorman graduated from Baylor in the spring of 2016, he had put his entrepreneurship degree to work and started his own business, E2 Creative.

E2 Creative is a custom craft shop in Waco, Texas, which makes handcrafted products such as swings, tables, cutting boards, beds and many more.

While Gorman started the company in 2014, he said he knew he had a natural attraction to woodwork at a very young age.

“The first time I ever did woodwork, I was probably 8 years old in my great-granddad’s basement and we were doing a plywood derby car, and really I didn’t do anything, but I was fascinated with his tools,” Gorman said. “I thought it was really incredible that … all these different tools worked together to make an incredible plywood derby car.”

While in college, Gorman found ways to work with his hands, whether putting together sets as a DJ for weddings or acting as Kappa Omega Tau’s float chair for homecoming during his senior year. Gorman said that these experiences helped to round out his love for working with his hands.

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Baylor alumnus Hunter Gorman created a custom craft shop, E2 Creative, after graduation. Gorman makes handcrafted products such as swings, tables, bed frames, cutting boards and many others. Photo credit: Photo courtesy of Carter Rodman

“The seed was planted with my great-granddad in his basement, but that seed was watered and took off into something awesome when I was a float chair for my fraternity,” Gorman said.

Amber Adamson, lecturer in journalism, public relations and new media had Gorman as a student and recently purchased a swing from E2 Creative. She said she loves seeing Gorman do something he is passionate about.

“Having [Gorman] as a student and then seeing him be successful in … this craft that he loves makes me proud,” Adamson said.

Adamson also said Gorman does a great job of showing his integrity in his work, and she can tell that he works hard.

“He believes in the old-school mentality of working with your hands and doing a job well,” Adamson said. “Hunter cares about his work passionately. He wants everything that he does to be the best representation of his company and of himself.”

Along with his work, Gorman is passionate about his faith. Gorman said one of his favorite passages in the Bible is Ephesians 2, and that’s the reason the company was named E2 Creative.

“[Ephesians 2] talks about how we are dead in our sins and the workmanship and the craftsmanship of Christ and his love and his mercy made us new creations and so … we try to create sustainable products using reclaimed materials,” Gorman said. “Just like the passage talks about Christ eventually reclaiming us and making us into new creations through his blood, that’s kind of what we do at E2 [Creative]. We take old, forgotten about things of wood and metal, things that would just be thrown out in the garbage … and we breathe new life into them.”

Gorman said he’s excited to see what the future holds for E2 Creative and looks to improve people’s lives with his work.

“Our goal,” Gorman said, “is to … make the city of Waco, and the state of Texas and ultimately the country a better place, be it one table at a time and one house at a time.”