TIMOTHY RAGLE
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Tim trained at a top furniture design program at the Master’s Level and was employed for over 28 years in construction and woodworking and as shop foreman. He has designed and built original furniture exhibited and sold throughout New England as well as lectured and judged at national shows as a recognized expert antique carriage restorer.
He has published articles on carriage restoration and painting and mentored and advised woodworking students at the high school and college level.
He’s actively involved in community conservation and historic research and preservation.
“I have been building and designing furniture for 35 years. I was fortunate to study with both Gib Taylor at Marlboro College and then later with the celebrated master craftsman par excellance, Tage Frid, at the Rhode Island School of Design. Both teachers excited a curiosity and passion within me that that exists to this day.
While Marlboro College opened up the arena and design world of fine woodworking and musical instrument making and taught me to think creatively and objectively while perfecting my skills, my work at RISD under the tutelage of Tage Frid brought my conceptual skills, my creative and design skills, and craft skills to a higher level. I could now create and design beautiful pieces of furniture that were successful on their own merit. I finally understood the whole process and the limitless possibilities for the first time.
I have always believed that simple is beautiful. From the simplicity and delicate elegance of the Shaker furniture to the magnificence of early Chinese furniture made from priceless and rare hardwoods and assembled with beautiful and intricate joinery with forms and designs that are valued and highly relevant today, I believe, as I did Frid, that great designs are all around us, and that we should make them our own. Great design is timeless.
Working with a myriad of woods, techniques and skills, I design every piece of furniture from a variety of hardwoods, both domestic and foreign. Each piece incorporates the best joinery, whether it be mortise and tenon or dovetail, open carcass construction or closed. Bent lamination technology or steam bending is used when necessary. Perfection of design, harmony of materials, high quality of construction, and attention to detail, insure that the finished piece is a work of art to be treasured and passed down through generations.
I welcome the opportunity to work with you to design a piece of furniture that is one of a kind.”