I first read about tree shaping in a Readers Digest magazine in the 1990s. It featured a man who would shapes trees into chairs and other sculptures. Even since then I wanted to do it. I got started on a white cherry tree that started growing in my yard. Once it got large enough, I would braid and weave the branches every spring.
I didn't do anything as complicated as a chair. I would try to create loops by braiding two distant branches into each other and fastening with wire. Or I would take a long branch, and bend it back to the trunk, and braid it into a branch heading in the opposite direction.
The most difficult thing was not accidentally breaking the branches while braiding. Sometimes strong winds would create too much tension on the already stressed branches and cause them to break.
I did that for about 5 years before I sold that house. The tree is still there last time I checked, but I haven't gotten a close look at how it has progressed.
At my new house, I've tried it with a red maple, but haven't had much success. The branches that I've shaped end up dying.
Sharing this story makes me want to take up the hobby again. I've got some fast growing trees at my current house that I could use.
This field is called Tree Shaping[1] and while it has been tried throughout history, I think there's still a lot of cool stuff that has never been tried.
One of my favourite examples is bonchi, or bonsai chili. It's exactly what the name implies. Unfortunately I've struggled to keep a regular pepper plant alive, let alone bonsai it:
Couple of Australians have been doing this since the 90's - I think they coined the term 'pooktre' to describe the form - https://www.pooktre.com/
Searching `Peter Cook Becky Northey tree furniture` gets you some nice pictures of their work, as they don't just 'do chair' -- though I suspect plenty of people have been doing this in various forms for centuries.
I've seen this couple discussed on HN before, although my searching abilities are failing me, I just found https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21051965 which is the same couple, but with 3 points and 1 comment, isn't likely to be the discussion I remember.
When I type in "Chair grow" I get nada, but "Chairs grow" provides a bunch of results. You'd think Chair and Chairs would be very close together in a search engine.
From the article: "The couple, who work with a range of trees including willow, oak and ash, said there were currently "a few dozen" growing pieces in their orchard, including stools, benches and "the odd chandelier" in progress."
Your comment made me think of those helix-shaped bamboos from IKEA. While this is of course on a whole different level, it does suggest some kind of shaping is possible for bamboo as well. And it wouldn't take decades...
Imagine an alien species comes here and sees all this totally fucked up human centric thinking. They put fish in small fish bowls, for their own enjoyment. They deform trees for their own enjoyment... and the list goes on. Bleh.
I assure you, any species capable of interstellar travel will have a capacity and willingness to bend their environment to their will that absolutely dwarfs our own.
I first read about tree shaping in a Readers Digest magazine in the 1990s. It featured a man who would shapes trees into chairs and other sculptures. Even since then I wanted to do it. I got started on a white cherry tree that started growing in my yard. Once it got large enough, I would braid and weave the branches every spring.
I didn't do anything as complicated as a chair. I would try to create loops by braiding two distant branches into each other and fastening with wire. Or I would take a long branch, and bend it back to the trunk, and braid it into a branch heading in the opposite direction.
The most difficult thing was not accidentally breaking the branches while braiding. Sometimes strong winds would create too much tension on the already stressed branches and cause them to break.
I did that for about 5 years before I sold that house. The tree is still there last time I checked, but I haven't gotten a close look at how it has progressed.
At my new house, I've tried it with a red maple, but haven't had much success. The branches that I've shaped end up dying.
Sharing this story makes me want to take up the hobby again. I've got some fast growing trees at my current house that I could use.
This field is called Tree Shaping[1] and while it has been tried throughout history, I think there's still a lot of cool stuff that has never been tried.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_shaping
The living bridges were new to me. I like the concept, would probably also work in more cold areas, but with more effort.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_root_bridge
One of my favourite examples is bonchi, or bonsai chili. It's exactly what the name implies. Unfortunately I've struggled to keep a regular pepper plant alive, let alone bonsai it:
https://old.reddit.com/r/Bonchi/top/
Couple of Australians have been doing this since the 90's - I think they coined the term 'pooktre' to describe the form - https://www.pooktre.com/
Searching `Peter Cook Becky Northey tree furniture` gets you some nice pictures of their work, as they don't just 'do chair' -- though I suspect plenty of people have been doing this in various forms for centuries.
Well that’s flabbergasting.
I've seen this couple discussed on HN before, although my searching abilities are failing me, I just found https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21051965 which is the same couple, but with 3 points and 1 comment, isn't likely to be the discussion I remember.
There's also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9344837 4 points 11 years ago, although the link is dead.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23956504
46 comments 2015
Thank you.
Would you like me to reveal my Angolia-fu?
Please do!
It's quite weird.
When I type in "Chair grow" I get nada, but "Chairs grow" provides a bunch of results. You'd think Chair and Chairs would be very close together in a search engine.
An issue of WET magazine (from the 1980s) profiled a similar operation. Always beautiful to see.
Talk about patience...
What species of tree is good for this?
relatively durable
relatively fast growing and amenable to bending and grafting
willow?
anybody ID those trees?
From the article: "The couple, who work with a range of trees including willow, oak and ash, said there were currently "a few dozen" growing pieces in their orchard, including stools, benches and "the odd chandelier" in progress."
an oak chair would take forever
I wonder if this could be done with bamboo.
Can you graft bamboo? Maybe join it by weaving or twisting
Your comment made me think of those helix-shaped bamboos from IKEA. While this is of course on a whole different level, it does suggest some kind of shaping is possible for bamboo as well. And it wouldn't take decades...
Camphor Laurel (Camphora officinarum) in ideal conditions, and for a patient individual, can be observed to grow.
I don’t only if it’s suitable for this particular application, and it’s considered a noxious weed in Australia.
On the one hand this is pretty cool.
On the other hand ... those chairs look damn incomplete. Even the supposedly "finished" ones ...
So elves in dwarf fortress.
I think these are very beautiful.
Imagine an alien species comes here and sees all this totally fucked up human centric thinking. They put fish in small fish bowls, for their own enjoyment. They deform trees for their own enjoyment... and the list goes on. Bleh.
I assure you, any species capable of interstellar travel will have a capacity and willingness to bend their environment to their will that absolutely dwarfs our own.
Carpentry is dead
The trees are taking our jobs