Conversations with Tom Osborn

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tom Osborn.

Hi Tom, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in Colorado watching my father make furniture to adorn our house with. He would invite me into the space to occasionally work on something together. A simple box, a wooden boat. He built me a small workbench for x-mas on year complete with a vice and cleared away enough space for me to have my work area. I have always enjoyed the creative process and have been told from a young age that I was spatially gifted.

My path to becoming a small business owner and craftsman was preceded by a career as a geologist, utilizing my spatial knack to map underground ore deposits, quantify water resources, and outline contaminated areas around historic and current mining areas. When I moved back to Colorado after spending time out of state and abroad for work I reacquainted myself with the joy of building things with my hands. It started small with house repairs and fixing/making furniture. But soon grew to larger projects like building a barn for some livestock that we had on my soon-to-be wife’s family ranch and helping with a timber frame addition.

For each project, I would get a few more tools to make things easier and the quality better. I was asked to build a vanity for a house and decided to go all out. Live edge doors with inlaid patina steel, hand-cut dovetails for the drawers, and soft-close under-mount drawer slides. The project was very fun and was well received by my friends who asked me to build it. This was the moment when I realized that I wanted to create a shop like my dad had growing up but to make it my career.

Since officially starting my business, I have had a great variety of projects from cabinets and furniture to timber frames. Always striving to do custom quality craftsmanship, always learning and meeting new friends along the way.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have met the path with many opportunities. Some take you toward the place where you want to go and others far far away from it.

I was told that if you don’t have a plan and a direction someone else will make one for you. Continuing to refine my vision for my ideal projects has helped smooth some of the wrinkles out.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am an artist on one hand and a problem solver on the other. Creating functional or decorative pieces of art through the lens of woodworking. This last year, I made a large walnut dining room table out of a tree that was locally harvested just down the road from my shop. The tree was cut down and milled by a friend a few years back and I was able to take two of these massive slabs and create a beautiful table for a wonderful couple.

During the process, I was able to connect with everyone involved in a very powerful way bringing them along during the process and creating connections and friendships. This human connection and story is part of everything that I do and it translates to the feel of each project. We all have a style that develops over time based on different influences in our surroundings. I hope to continue to cultivate fine furniture built with locally sourced domestic hardwoods sourced from local arborists milled at my shop.

What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Don’t be afraid to dream big. We are all capable of incredible things.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mountainvalleywoodworking.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mountainvalleywoodworking/