Rob Richards

October 29

Arborsculpture, A Primer:

An Alternative to Milled Lumber

While conventionally we think that wooden things are made up of dead, milled lumber, arborsculpture allows us to from an endless variety of sustainable wooden objects and structures out of live woody tissue. Arborsculpture is simply the practice of shaping the growth of living trees by bending, pruning, and grafting. An endless variation of sculptures can be made, from art to functional elements, furniture, and homes. Pictured Below, Courtesy of Charles Spence | “Pleached Huts,” is a large scale arbosculpture project; Masterpieces can be formed with great

character and strength as we manipulate and work in synergy with the plants. The tools needed to begin to a living sculpture can be very cheap or free and simple jigs and fasteners can be made from nearly anything. The most important aspect to keep in mind is that in arborsculpture you are dealing with a

living entity; The overall health and vigor of the tree is ultimately going to be the main factor in how well it responds to being worked with.

Bending or weaving of the trunks and their branches, is generally the first step after you obtain suitable material. Trunks, branches, and roots, the structural systems of the specimen, form the structural element of the project. Chairs, fences and other objects can be used as a temporary frame to brace the young trees until new growth holds it in place. A volunteer group

with Minnetrista's Children's Garden created this chair. (Left) Using temporary rubber straps and a wooden frame, they were able to bend and shape twenty willows trees into a chair. (Reames) Wire is often used to hold a branch while it grows into its new form. Wire can be

affixed to a branch and pulled towards a solid object or to the ground. In some practices, Very typical in Bonsai, (or “Tray Planting” an art that practice growing trees in pots;

The trees are meticulously and regularly pruned and shaped to give the impression of great age and size.) wire is temporarily coiled around the branches at a precise 45 degree angle, the wire and the branches are then bent at the same time; This gives you more flexibility to create intricate bends that would, otherwise be impractical by other methods. Wire may need to be left for several months,

or even a year or more on slow-growing, or (“Spruce Landscape,” Walter Paul)

drastically bent branches. “Spruce Landscape” is an exceptional example of Bonsai, this spruce tree, measuring only 45 inches tall, portrays a large mature tree. Bonsai is a very demanding and very rewarding hobby, trees often take 5-10 years to even become respectable specimens; Some heirloom bonsais have been in training for hundreds of years and are the envy of bonsaists around the world. A 250-year-old juniper, which was exhibited nationally in 1954, sold in 1981 for $2 million. (Lambert and Minami, Forbes)

Branch pliability is dependant upon many factors, including: tree species, age of growth, and time of the year. Extreme care is to be taken when live branches are bent. The outer layers

of the trees’ branches are made up of the living tissues of the plant, sharp bends or kinks can cut off the flow of sugars and cause die-back or death. In most cases, juvenile wood from most woody species can be bent into shape and will continue to put out new layers of growth and hold the shape permanently. A healthy tree can take a tremendous amount of “abuse.” I planted 300 willow trees in double staggered rows around my parents property two years ago, once

established, (a full growing season of watering and staking) they were left to nature and her ways. Despite the neglect, carelessness, and abuse they’ve endured from mowing, arborsculpture experiments, and the elements, only one has died. One tree in particular got mowed down to a cracked and mangled trunk only about an inch tall, eight weeks later it had 3 strong growing stems more than a foot long each; This tree now, almost a year later, blends in so well with the other trees its hard to imagine that it lost almost 100% of its above ground growth.

Pruning the living material plays a large role in establishing suitable material and in advanced, long-term arborsculpture it is essential in order to control its wild habit. Pruing to control the direction of growth can be done by pruning a stem to a bud facing in the desired direction; That new bud will be activated by a lack the hormone that the terminal bud produces to inhibit bud break. (Brickell and Joyce 15) Removal of unwanted or rotting material is necessary for the overall appearance, function, and health of the structure. Different species will respond differently to pruning and some projects will lend themselves to particular species; Strong familiarity with the tree or trees you’re working with cannot be emphasized enough as it is crucial to ensure its health and vigor. Some species, Salix (Willow) in particular, respond vigorously to hard pruning in the winter; In the spring dormant buds below the cut will be activated sending out strong, up-ward branches, or “Whips.” Coniferous trees on the other hand aren’t as forgiving, With few exceptions, conifers do not regenerate freely from old wood. The branches or “Trunks” of these trees drastically pruned trees(coppiced) were traditionally used for fire wood, as well as material for weaving baskets, or making fence posts. This material would also, if propagated, make excellent starting material, As “cuttings,” (the most popular propagation method, rooting is induced on stems from a “donor” or “mother” plant by removing them from the donor and keeping them moist, often with an application of synthetic root hormones,) for any number of arborsculpture projects. Both of these are methods of maintaining a hedge, either for harvest of for its uniform beauty; Hedge laying, another method of maintaining a hedge, practiced by farmers, to create a strong enough hedge to hold back livestock, is a truly magnificent way to embrace the local ecosystem and get a sustainable fence out of it for free (“National Hedge-laying Society“.) No barbed wire required; “Laying” a hedge as described by The Wyre Borough Council:

“When [a row of] trees reach a certain size their stems are partially cut through at the base and bent over or "laid" down at an angle. Although partially cut through, the stems continue to live. The new growth grows upwards until it reaches a suitable size to be laid again.” (Left)

The trunks that run horizontally prevent livestock from forcing themselves through the voids that are typical in an unmaintained hedge row. (Below).

(“Hedge-laying Close-up,” “A recently laid Hedge,” “A Neglected “Gappy” Hedge,” Wyre Borough Council)

Although it might not seem like it, coppicing, pollarding, and hedge laying can extend the life of the specimen by keeping them in a constant state of juvenility and will not allow trees, if maintained, to ever die of old age; Stools of trees that have been coppiced for centuries can therefore grow to immense sizes, some thirty feet across or larger. Arborsculpture requires, and combines all of a horticulturist’s knowledge into a practical art, where the wood is the raw material. Trees are the manufacturers. And you are the designer and engineer of nearly any living sculpture, object, or structure.

(”Young Basket Tree”, Steve Nix)

(“Basket Tree” Ginger)

Grafting is the “glue” that holds it all together. In nature, when two trunks or branches of the same species grow towards each other their cambium layers fuse together. In arborsculpture you can use this natural phenomenon to your advantage, adding strength and integrity to your design. Grating occurs when two wounded parts of the same species tree come in contact; Each of the trees, while repairing, will merge into one, just as when an organ is transplanted into a human. The images to the left are of the same planting of six sycamore trees that were topped and approach grafted 32 times to create a basket. The “Basket Tree” was planted and shaped by Axel Erlandson living in California in the 1940s. The top photo is the planting at 7 years old. The bottom is the tree/s in their new location, Gilroy Gardens, California.

Living fences can be made, using this idea of grafting, by closely planting trees along the proposed fence line. The trunks should be bent down at angles or planted in the ground at an angle to make the trees crisscross over each other; In each instance where the trunks of the young trees cross, they should be temporarily tied to each other until united growth is achieved. A sort of hybrid between the “Basket tree” and Hedge-Laying. Similarly, Pleaching, is the intricate weaving of the branches of a large planting of trees, typically a row, in order to form a flat, dense, two-dimensional wall of foliage (Brickell and Joyce 38). Depending on the species and the vigor of the fence, you could very well soon have a solid, living fence. In a living sculpture grafting becomes the screws, the nails, and the glue.

The power of arborsculpture becomes apparent when you combine all of these methods and a lot of patience; You are rewarded with a one of a kind tree and a work of art, the credit of which is shared between the creator and the trees. The growth of the trees show the time element involved in bending them to our wills. Some projects have a defined end point, when the tree is harvested. Others, are permanent structures intended to be sustained for the life of the specimen/s. Once you discover the power, resilience, and sustainability of live wood you will think twice when considering buying anything built from milled lumber.