“How do you do that?”
It’s the question Uli Kirchler hears most often when people see his intricate castles suddenly popping up from pieces of burl wood with a flip of a wrist.
Many assume advanced tools — lasers or 3D printing — must be at work. But Kirchler credits the scroll saw, invented hundreds of years ago.
Cutting the castles is a precise dance of angles and friction.
He uses a scroll saw to cut several conical wedges that nest within themselves. When the tapered castle pieces fly up, friction holds them in place.
“It makes me smile a little bit because friction in this case just makes life run so smoothly,” Kirchler says.
Once a one-man band, now a woodworking wizard, Uli Kirchler says he collaborates with nature to create tiny castles that pop up out of burl wood.
Uli Kirchler / Uli Kirchler
Wood angels
Kirchler has a collection of large burled wood, the gnarly bumps on the side or bottom of a tree.
When he hears a chainsaw buzzing near his home in Cornelius, Kirchler jumps on his bike or gets in his car to see what tree is being cut up.
The word has spread that he’s on the hunt for burl wood. Sometimes he’ll come home to find a huge piece sitting in his driveway, dropped off by “wood angels.”
“People love to support artists,” he says.
The art of listening to wood
“Collaborating with nature is part of my job,” Kirchler says. ”I just try to bring the best out of it.”
Before making his first cut, he examines each piece of burl wood, respecting its natural shape, texture and even its flaws. Bugs, bumps and imperfections all add character, he says.
He is delighted when he finds beautiful patterns in black, red, pink and other colors in the wood created by spalting fungi.
The circles in this vase are cross sections of branches and the stripes are pieces of twigs. Artist Uli Kirchler fills the natural voids with sawdust or ground up rocks, egg shells and other materials.
Uli Kirchler / Uli Kirchler
Finding beauty in imperfection
Kirchler’s talent for transformation extends beyond castles. He creates one-of-a-kind vases from pieces of wood others might overlook or discard.
“The gnarly shapes, the odds and ends — those are the most spectacular,” he says.
Early in his career, Kirchler discarded wood with cracks or holes, but now he sees flaws as opportunities.
“I don’t need perfection. A crack is an invitation,” he explains.
To fill those natural voids, Kirchler inlays strips of twigs, cross sections of branches, and unconventional material like eggshells, pieces of an aluminum lawn chair, colored rocks and grains of rice.
He uses a coffee grinder to process those materials and then mixes the fine powders with super glue, creating stunning inlays that seamlessly integrate into his pieces.
From one-man band to master craftsman
Born in South Tyrol, a German-speaking region of Italy, Kirchler’s journey to woodworking was circuitous.
For a decade, he traveled the world as a one-man band, carrying all his possessions in a drum strapped to his back. Along the way, strangers welcomed him into their homes, sharing meals and offering places to stay.
“I didn’t grow up in an artistic family — both my parents were teachers. But busking taught me there are no boundaries. I could express myself however I wanted,” Kirchler says.
He stopped playing music when he fell in love with a Californian woman and decided to settle down.
Wanting to provide for a future family, he took on a bathroom renovation project for his in-laws and discovered the joy of working with his hands.
He signed up for a woodworking class and slowly learned how to coax magic from a piece of wood.
“Imagination happens because I work. I don’t think it happens on its own,” he says.
“When I work, either it’s a mistake, it’s a cut, it’s something different that I see. But I really think that’s where the thought is born.”
Kirchler’s castles will be on display at the Gathering of the Guilds art show at the Oregon Convention Center April 25-27, 2025.
