Chairs that grow on trees!
They’re surely Britain’s most bizarre crop: Willow trees trained into chairs over seven years. Make sure you’re sitting down before you hear the price — they’re £5,000 each
DEEP in the Derbyshire Dales, one of the most curious forests you’re ever likely to see has firmly taken root.
Laid out in neat rows, the trees seem at first glance merely to be growing at bizarre angles. But look a little closer and you’ll see their branches are actually growing into the shape of perfectly formed, albeit upside-down, chairs.
Once cut down and polished, they would grace even the smartest of dining rooms. All of which is exactly what has put such a broad smile on furniture designer Gavin Munro’s face.
Each of his willow ‘chair trees’, sold through his company Full Grown, takes between seven and nine years — including hours of painstakingly precise husbandry — to grow and complete, which explains the eye-watering price.
Yesterday, Gavin said that to commission a chair now — which, remember, will be available to collect in 2025 at the earliest — costs £5,000. In the 2020s, ‘off the shelf ’ chairs will be available, but be warned: these are expected to be even more expensive — at least £10,000.
This reflects their status as ‘works of art and design’. Indeed, interest so far has mostly come from museums, galleries and private collectors. Hearing the process explained, it is no wonder Gavin has to charge so much to turn a profit.
‘With everything we usually make from wood, we take trees, we grow them for 50 years, we cut them into smaller bits and stick them back together in ways that can only ever come apart.
‘The whole point of this is to make things that are grown into one solid piece and to try to make the most subtle intervention into nature,’ he explains.
After being planted, each tree is allowed to grow for five years before coppicing — an ancient technique of cutting back the tree to stimulate growth — begins. New shoots then appear and it is those with which he works. ‘For a chair, we start with a fork shape and then prune and shape the branches, training them into the right shape with the help of reusable metal frames,’ he said. ‘At certain points, we graft two branches together by cutting little strips of bark off each branch then lining up the cuts and binding them together. They then grow together, so that the object becomes one solid piece. We’re only employing processes familiar to farmers, hedge- layers and rose fans.’ For every tree he grows, there are ten main branches which need to be constantly cared for to create a chair; around 100 shoots which have to be pruned at exactly PRINTED AND DISTRIBUTED BY PRESSREADER PressReader.com +1 604 278 4604 . ORIGINAL COPY . ORIGINAL COPY . ORIGINAL COPY . ORIGINAL COPY . ORIGINAL COPY ORIGINAL COPY COPYRIGHT AND PROTECTED BY APPLICABLE LAW
the right time; and at least 30 grafts which need to be made.
After around seven years, Gavin ‘harvests’ his chair- shaped trees simply by sawing them off.
Then the chairs have to be dried to prevent the wood splitting. This takes place in a room in Gavin’s workshop with a fan and a dehumidifier. ‘It’s similar to the technique used for drying parma ham, but slower,’ he says.
This is followed by sanding each chair down to a very fine grade and applying hard wax oil, a type of environmentally friendly polish, to create the glass- smooth finish which brings out the real beauty of the wood.
Gavin, 42, from Wirksworth, near Matlock in Derbyshire, said: ‘What we’re trying to do is to bring nature and luxury together in an elegant way.
‘The vast bulk of it is about letting the trees themselves take the lead. Then we just have to be present at the right times to make the most subtle of changes to achieve the shapes and patterns we want.’
He is helped by his wife Alice, 43, who is also involved in running the business side of the operation, including its social media activities, and a small team of other staff.
The couple aim to produce around 100 items (other products include lampshades and tables produced by a similar method) from their first major harvest, which is due to take place in 2021.
Gavin’s previous work has included making furniture out of driftwood when he lived in California. But he was inspired to turn his hand to growing chairs by his experience of having a spinal condition as a child.
‘I spent eight years, off and on, in hospital having my spine re-straightened. For a big chunk of that I was lucky enough to be in a hospital that was right on the edge of some woodland,’ he says.
‘It was beautiful to be able to look out into the woodland, to see the birds coming to feed all the way up to the door. Then, on the other side, being surrounded by so much kindness and competence.’
Today, he is essentially applying similar techniques to the neck brace his doctors used to correct his spine to grow his unique chairs. And the way they treated him has left a lasting impression.
‘ Really, that’s what brought this project together — this combination of kind, competent culture and making the least possible intervention with nature in order to get the things we want,’ he says.
If what you want is a chair grown from scratch, then Gavin’s the man for you. Full prices are available on application from fullgrown.co.uk