My First Thought,

is this an April Fool gag?

 instead of growing trees, chopping them down and processing the wood making it into chairs, why not train the tree into a chair or furniture shape as it grows?

 that was the idea of Derbyshire-based furniture designer Gavin Munro wondered if he could try a wholly different approach, after a lengthy years-long trial in his mother’s garden and a sturdy proof-of-concept, Full Grown was born, 

the process can take between 4 to 8 years, Gavin explains, ‘in essence it’s an incredibly simple art, You start by training and pruning young tree branches as they grow over specially made former's, 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’, 

this video will explain it all, Full Grown’s first prototype willow chair has already found its way into the permanent collection at the National Museum of Scotland, and Munro and his team just launched a Kickstarter to help them bridge the gap in the final year before their first harvest, nearly 11 years in the making, and no I am not on commission!