Ryan Tinsel Woodworker

I have built things with wood pretty much since moving to Portland, Oregon in 1995. Early on I was a house carpenter, and then I mainly did kitchen cabinets and built-ins. In the past few years I’ve done more furniture and am enjoying the slow process of working toward carving out my own style of art furniture.

In my furniture, I want to highlight the interaction between wood and our human hands. The wood comes raw and expressive, showing the telltale signs of the struggle of life and growth. Then along come humans shaping and polishing, making signs of that struggle into something more cozy and cultured, something we want to touch and live next to, and in the process we reveal our own struggle for beauty and meaning. In my pieces, I want to see evidence of the tree’s struggle. I want to see evidence of the working of human hearts and hands.