woven sapling playhouses

I just saw this in FaceBook this morning. The artist made one for her daughter because she didn't want her daughter playing in plastic, then started receiving requests to make more.

It was this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/27/garden/a-hand-woven-retort-to-the-plastic-playhouse.html?_r=0.



And this is the gal's website: http://cheeriup.com/.

Kinda cool.

That's the biggest beehive I've ever seen!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE woven structures! Thanks for posting this.

Glad you enjoyed it! I think it might be fairly easy to grow coppiced saplings for making and selling these lovely things.

I think you're right. I just trimmed back the growth on my urban "fedge" - I could have been half way to one of these playhouses with all those whippy shoots! Next time for sure.

I love this so much.

I wonder how to keep the upright sticks still while starting the weave.  Stick em in the ground?

r ransom wrote:I love this so much.

I wonder how to keep the upright sticks still while starting the weave.  Stick em in the ground?

Here in Everett, some even more artistic ones were just installed this summer at the Evergreen Arboretum. Not exactly living willow structures, but look at the colors and patterns!



The willow structures were made by Erin Cox who grows different colors of willow just for baskets and crafts.





The bear sculptures are cool, too, but they are wood scraps, not willow or saplings, and by a different artist.



This last pic was a hurried one, an attempt to get a view of all of them together. If you zoom in on the reddish narrow tall thing behind the bear's bum, it's a sculpture that is protecting a sprinkler head!

That's so cool Jocelyn! We were just in Everett and almost stopped by the Arboretum. Now we have an even bigger reason to go! My husband and I used to go there all the time before we moved away from the city, but I don't think we've visited it since our son was 2...10 years ago!

Nicole Alderman wrote:That's so cool Jocelyn! We were just in Everett and almost stopped by the Arboretum. Now we have an even bigger reason to go! My husband and I used to go there all the time before we moved away from the city, but I don't think we've visited it since our son was 2...10 years ago!

Yes, I highly recommend this sweet little arboretum! I can't believe your son is 12(!!!) now - wow!!

Also, here is the artist's, Erin Cox's webpage on living willow structures:  https://www.fieldandforestcrafts.com/living-willow-structures. Besides selling living willow panels and topiaries that are very cool (!) she has included a good list of "things to consider" (instructions) for growing willow structures.

I knew her name because she gives workshops in this area on weaving, including nettle textile weaving! https://www.fieldandforestcrafts.com/workshops

r ransom wrote:I love this so much.

I wonder how to keep the upright sticks still while starting the weave.  Stick em in the ground?

That is a traditional way of making creels, so it seems a perfect way of starting out. If you were making lots of houses the same size, then you might want a wooden form to keep them identical, but I would just build it in situ. Willow if you wanted a playhouse that carried on growing, hazel for one that stayed the same size!

source

r ransom wrote:I love this so much.

I wonder how to keep the upright sticks still while starting the weave.  Stick em in the ground?

You can stick them in the ground and cut them off when finished, or just build them where you want them and leave them there. These are temporary structures, after all.
Another method is to build a wooden base frame and drill holes to hold the sticks. That makes for an easier weave, and lets you keep the frame to build multiple projects.

When I was learning to build my tomato cages, I had to anchor the sticks in the ground first before I could tie the wreath ribs in place. (Believe me, it was a wrestling match at first. They don't look like much, but at eight feet tall, there was a vigorous learning curve involved. They insisted on twisting and falling over.) I finally learned that the sticks had to be sunk deep, and the lowest ring tied first. If I do this again, I'll probably build a plywood base with guide holes, and extras drilled at the corners to hold anchor stakes.

Ive made a bunch of garden beds pit of woven branches. Great way to deal with pruning waste

I've definitely done this (the very lazy way) where when I pruned some unwanted trees that had gotten out of hand I formed a little teepee with the larger branches and put the smaller cut branches in piles around the teepee. Its is now a favorite hangout for my chickens, cats and wild birds! This was a local suggestion from our Marion County Soil and Water Conservation district to help local wildlife by making natural hidey-holes / habitat for them. If you look closely at my photo there is at least one wild bird in there