Meet the Artist
Uli Kirchler
Woodworking
Uli Kirchler was born and raised in the German speaking part of Italy, called South Tyrol. For 10 years, he made a living playing music all around Europe. Uli was a one-man band, guitar in hand, drums on his back and harmonica propped around his neck. Always marching to the beat of his own drum, he found his way to the wonderful world of woodworking, the focus of his creative energies over the past 25 years. Uli had no formal training, relying instead on his imagination and his fascination with the beauty of wood as a means of honing his skills. Uli really loves what he gets to do in life!
Uli uses a variety of tools including a chainsaw, bandsaw, scroll saw and numerous sanders to cut, shape and grind wood. He uses the entire tree: the lumber to build and sculpt, the twigs and sawdust for inlays. Most of his wood is native to Oregon and California. Natural characteristics, such as holes and cracks, give Uli the opportunity to inlay twigs, rocks found while hiking. He also uses different colored eggshells, grains of rice, bricks and even aluminum shavings from a broken lawn chair. A scroll saw is used exclusively to cut each tower of the landscape castles and villages. With the correct angle and a few precise cuts Uli creates wooden towers that burst in and out of chunks of wood with the flick of the wrist.