We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tim Graber. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tim below.

Tim, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

When it comes to my parents, I was extremely lucky to have wonderful parents that allowed me to express my creative freedom while guiding me in the techniques and methods to improve my skills. Both of my parents had amazing skills and pure talent of their own. By them guiding me, letting me learn through mistakes and proving resources to further my skillset I was very fortunate to be impacted in a positive way setting a solid foundation that I use both in my career and life today.

When I was very young, a story that comes to mind is how my parents provided me with the resources I needed to feed my creative growth. I remember seeing these neat drawings of buildings that seemed to vanish over the horizon. I was absolutely fascinated with how they showcased clean lines, beautiful layouts of buildings, and what seemed to be a geometrical playground. I wanted to be able to do this. I recall asking my mom to show me how to draw these, but she seemed to be overly busy, and I went about my days trying to figure it out on my own. Apparently, my mom talked to my dad about my request and about a week later Dad brought me a book on architectural design. For a young kid this book was massive and full of words and drawing techniques that I could not even comprehend. As I was flipping through the pages, there it was, the drawing method I so wanted to know how to do. It was a “two-point perspective” drawing. I now had so many more questions but a book that would allow me to explore until my heart was content.

Looking back my mom could have shown me how to draw the buildings with ease or little effort. But what my parents did was give me a source of knowledge that would answer a thousand new questions, stimulate new forms of knowledge, and help me learn things I could never have thought of. I was talking to my dad about this later in life and come to find out he had given a 10-year-old boy a college level book on Architecture. Today, I refer to this as one of the best gifts of my life as I still use what I learned from that book daily.

Tim, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was extremely fortunate to be born into a family of artisans. My father was a very brilliant furniture maker while my mother was a talented free-hand artist. This coupling worked well together as my father would build furniture that my mother in return would paint and sell in local markets and at her art studio. Without a doubt, these two loving parents established an environment that was full of creativity, engineering, and a business mindset. As I moved into my teens seeking additional knowledge, I started studying design concepts and developing my own artisan skills. At this point, however, a career opportunity that one should not pass up but in a different direction presented itself. Fortunately, I was able to continue developing my business and leadership skills but had to set aside building furniture for a moment.

One day I found myself standing in my dad’s shop, holding a cherry wood board and a chisel in my hands. After about a year of rediscovering my love for building furniture, I felt fully confident that all the skills and knowledge that I had developed when I was younger came back to me. But what was even more fascinating was I had grown into my own self with an extreme appreciation for joint work and the craftsman style of the 1900s. From that point, Graber Joinery was started and I have never been so appreciative and happy in my life. It is like a childhood dream being fulfilled each day I step into the shop.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

What a great word “resilience” is when describing a journey of a small business owner. The ability to withstand, recover or even identify foreseeable difficulties is a daily task. As a custom furniture builder lumber is a heavily relied on resource. For the most part lumber cost seemed to be relatively steady and could be calculated into the cost of goods with ease and reliability. In 2020 everything changed with the prices of lumber skyrocketing and the inability to even acquire lumber. This made it extremely difficult to quote and even deliver a final product on time and on budget. To overcome such a direct impact to the bottom line of the business, creative ways to acquire lumber and reduce lead times had to be developed. However, a single new method was not always the right answer for the day resulting in a continuation of creative thinking in order to stay afloat. Thankfully after several years lumber prices have once again seemed to stabilize. Even with that, process and inventory modifications have been made to help reduce impact to the business in case the market decides to change, in what seemed to be an overnight event, once again.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

What I think helped build my reputation in the market is standing behind my building methods and sharing that process with others. I specifically focus on craftsmanship that incorporates 1900s style of furniture making. For example, this means the joints are mortise and tenon or dovetails to name a few. These can be described as joinery that interlocks into itself creating an extremely strong bond. This type of craftsmanship is similar to what antiques of days of old are made of. Also, I have the ability to reclaim trees and mill (saw) the trees into boards and slabs. This allows for exposure of and the ability to select from some of nature’s most beautiful of creations. With both of these functions, I can truly capture a vision and create a one-of-a-kind piece of furniture that can become an heirloom piece lasting a lifetime.

Saying that is easy but truly what does that mean and how is it different over the massed produced furniture of today? I answer those questions and even show the difference during the initial design and building phases of the commissioned furniture build. By understanding the difference an appreciation for the furniture grows and a story is created that can be shared with others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.graberjoinery.com/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/graber_joinery/