Strange Facts: Arborsculpture: Tree shaping

Arborsculpture is the art and technique of growing and shaping trunks of trees and other woody plants. By grafting, bending and pruning the woody trunks and or branches are grown into shapes either ornamental or useful. The word is a conjunction of the words arbor (Latin for tree) and sculpture.

John Krubsack (1858-1941) was a banker and naturalist from Embarrass, Wisconsin. He conceived, planted and shaped living trees to create the first known grown chair. He started his chair in 1903 and harvested 11 years later in 1914.

Living Chair by Krubsack

Harvested Chair

Krubsack explains the process in which he grew the chair in detail:

After I had planted 32 trees all box elders, in the spring of 1907, I left them to grow in their new home for a year until they were six feet tall, before beginning the chair. In the spring of 1908 I gradually began the work of training the young and pliable stems to grow gradually in the shape of a chair. Most of this work consisted in bending the stems of these trees and tying and grafting them together so as to grow, if possible with all the joints cemented by nature. This was largely an experiment with me and it was with a great deal of interest that I watched and assisted nature in growing piece of furniture. The first summer's growth found all the joints I had made by tying and grafting grown firmly together. Some of the trees I found, however, grew much faster than others. To overcome this, I began to cut the stems of those trees that to my notion had grown large enough. This did not kill these trees but simply retarded their growth so as to give the weaker trees a chance to catch up.
In this manner I let these trees grow for seven years. During the last two years I had only four trees growing from the root. These were the four that consisted the legs of the chair and all the other stems kept alive from these four stems because they were grafted to them. After the seventh year all the trees were cut, making in all eleven years from the time the seed was sown until the chair was finally completed.

Axel Erlandson (December 15, 1884 – April 28, 1964) was a Swedish American farmer who shaped trees as a hobby, and opened a horticultural attraction in 1947 advertised as "See the World's Strangest Trees Here," and named "The Tree Circus."

Erlandson sold his attraction shortly before his death. The trees were moved to Gilroy Gardens in 1985.

Revolving Door

Two Leg Tree

The "Basket Tree"

Emblem Tree

This living tree house located in Bio Park on Okinawa Island. This living tree house demonstrates the potential of training tree trunks into fun and functional garden elements. It is constructed using the basket weave technique out of Ficus trees.

Richard Reames, author of “How to Grow a Chair” and pioneer of the term “arborsculpture” grows a number of designs. He has made chairs, a peace sign and tool handles. He also wrote “Arborsculpture Solutions for a Small Planet” and creator of Arborsmith.com.