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Wooden furniture is no novelty, yet growing a piece? That’s impressive and exactly what Gavin Monroe has been doing for the last eleven years as part of his project, Full Grown.

In essence it’s an incredibly simple art. You start by training and pruning young tree branches as they grow over specially made formers. At certain points we then graft them together so that the object grows into one solid piece – I’m interested in the way that this is like an organic 3D printing that uses air, soil and sunshine as its source materials. After it’s grown into the shape we want, we continue to care for and nurture the tree, while it thickens and matures, before harvesting it in the winter and then letting it season and dry. It’s then a matter of planing and finishing to show off the wood and grain inside.

The practice does have ancient predecessors in China, Egypt, and Greece, but nothing on this scale has ever been attempted.

Monroe is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to help fund his work, but can already boast his first piece being in the National Museum of Scotland.

Full story at Full Grown via Colossal.

Somewhat natural design.