Arborsculpture is the art and technique of growing and shaping trunks, branches and roots of trees and other woody plants. By grafting, bending and pruning the woody trunks and or shaping branches to grow into shapes either ornamental or useful. Similar to espalier and possibly including some topiary for some projects. The word is a Portmanteau of the words arbor (Latin for tree) and sculpture.
The word Arborsculpture first appeared in the book How to Grow a Chair- The Art of Tree Trunk Topiary 1995 by Reames and Delbol. ISBN 0-9647280-0-1 Reames coined the word in an attempt to give a unifying name to the practice of shaping the growth of tree trunks into sculptural shapes. The word has since been used in media[1] around the world, and appears in at least one published patent. The nascent word is not found in standard English dictionaries. Controversy exists about the branding of Arborsculpture as some of the practitioners he presents in his book ("Arborsculpture Solutions for a small planet") don't accept the term, or agree to be tagged by it, whereas others do.
Richard Reames was inspired by the works of Axel Erlandson to attempt his first experiments with growing trees in chairs, which lead him to writing his first book "How to grow a chair" before his experiments were mature.
The word Arborsculpture first appeared in the book How to Grow a Chair- The Art of Tree Trunk Topiary 1995 by Reames and Delbol. ISBN 0-9647280-0-1 Reames coined the word in an attempt to give a unifying name to the practice of shaping the growth of tree trunks into sculptural shapes. The word has since been used in media[1] around the world, and appears in at least one published patent. The nascent word is not found in standard English dictionaries. Controversy exists about the branding of Arborsculpture as some of the practitioners he presents in his book ("Arborsculpture Solutions for a small planet") don't accept the term, or agree to be tagged by it, whereas others do.
Richard Reames was inspired by the works of Axel Erlandson to attempt his first experiments with growing trees in chairs, which lead him to writing his first book "How to grow a chair" before his experiments were mature.
Comments
The 2nd photo is of a tree that was shaped by Aharon Naveh and this is his web site http://www.geocities.com/aharonaveh22/index.htm He has photos of his trees and talks about how he come to be shaping trees.