apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

no! leave the trees alone! plant amnesty!

looks like tree abuse to me.

those are flipping awesome, wish i had the skill and patience (let alone a tree or four) to do that.

soooo coooool

Wow. These are amazing! Quite the opposite of the "get it now, get it cheap" mentality. I can't imagine the patience, forsight, and planning this takes...not to mention the fact that these pieces are durrable, totally "green" and just plain awesome. I can imagine some forest elf sitting in these...

"looks like tree abuse to me."

No worse than pruning - or picking flowers & fruit.
(Think about it)

IMO - This is pretty cool.

i am so impressed. go look at the site... the tree people?? amazing.

so unusual, love it!

I want one of those tree houses show cased a couple of weeks back.....and this furniture as a patio. It's incredible and beautiful.

Living in the mountains, I have seen all kinds of homemade furniture made from dead branches and limbs of trees but this takes the cake. This is one of the most ingenius and amazing ideas I have seen in a long time. I would love to have one of these in my yard.

Look up circus trees. Amazing stuff.

love it...

Amazing!

Tree abuse? Seriously? I think this is amazing!

It's basically a form of topiary, isn't it? If anyone here hasn't seen "Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control," I highly, highly recommend it. These are amazing, and I've just looked up "circus trees" per the suggestion, and holy crap!

The most sustainable furniture ever, its still living, absorbing carbon and growing, love it. But the patience to do this - ayayayaya!!!

Formally, it's called "Arborsculpture"
There are at least a couple of books available on the subject, and one of these days I'm going to get around to getting one, because I find this endlessly fascinating.

i think it is tree abuse but only the chair. the tree is forced to grow in a bent form and not a curved form. there should be more arc rather than corners. the rest of the images seem fine for me. just make the chair more organic form rather than replicating a normal chair with organic material.

These trees don't look abused to me.
On the contrary, they look doted upon!

Hi this is Becky from Pooktre.

In relpy to uppergeorgetowner, kristykreem and Mr. Programmer about tree abuse.

Regarding your concern for the trees, we start with a seedling and guide the new growth of the tree, not bend already formed branches. This results in the even and balanced growth. Our way of shaping is a very gentle, but time consuming.

Some people try to do it quickly with older trees and this is when they run into problems. If you bend a branch of a tree this is when the damage accrues and leads to unpredictable results. Which is easily seen because it results in uneven growth and die back.

The problems seem to arise once you go beyond the sapling’s normal flexing range

Happy growing

Hi this is Becky from Pooktre.

In relpy to splatgirl about Formally, it's called "Arborsculpture"

This is incorrect.

Arborsculpture does not represent the art form as a whole. It relates to a tree shaping method of Richard Reames.
At Wikipedia there was a consensus that a neutral name was needed for the artform, and Tree shaping was decided upon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_shaping

Also the couple of books you mention on the subject of Arborsculpture are written by Richard Reames who created the word Arborsulpture.

You may be also interested in visiting this website http://www.treeshapers.net which shows photos from all the different tree shapers from around the world.

how is this tree abuse?! we cut up forests to make tables and shelves and chairs! and what about firewood? this tree abuse thing is ridiculous.

i think this tree shaping is amazing and inspirational! beautiful, creative, and functional!

AMAZING!!!

WOW! This made my night! I would to have those! :-D

er, LOVE! lol

this is simply amazing i enjoyed watching these pictures. Very inspirational and unique concept in growing shaped natural furniture from live trees.



Jeanne

What a beautiful art!

Very cool, but the human-looking trees are scaring the crap out of me!

Guaranteed to be one of AT's top posts this month -- the novelty factor is off the scale. Great work Regina!

This is awesome!

That looks like one happy hippie.

I feel sorry for that tree!

I'm pretty sure trees can't feel and therefore they are not bothered by this in the least!

If that chair-tree thought it was being abused, don't you think it would gobble up the next sitter? LOL!!!!

AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH! Those people trees are the trees of my nightmares!!!!

(But they're wicked-cool!)

KrapArtist, you might enjoy this moveihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Otik. I love topiary. Current project is cutting out large patches of sweeet gum saplings taking over everything and I did wonder about weaving some together.

you people that are dissing this are completely retarded this is amazing


if i knew how to do this i would


he's not harming the tree in anyway the thing is still growing

this is an amazing art and think about bonsais this is the same kind of thing
your just manipulating the way the tree grows

very cool!

This is awesome beyond belief ... if I could have one of these growing in my NYC apartment, I would!