'The chair that lived' is the
only known tree shaping that John Krubsack
did. If this is true, it should never be underestimated just
how
much John had achieved with this example. One of the truly amazing
things
about this person was his ability to successfully grow an even and
balanced chair with his first experiment.
Quote
from the Shawano Leader Newspaper in 19th October of
1922
What is believed to be the only natural growing chair in the United
States now rests in the home of John Krusback, president of
Embarrass State bank.
In the fall of 1903. Mr Krusback conceived the idea of a
chair
made of box elder, but instead of cutting the trees and nailing
together, a rustie chair, Mr Krusback had the patience to sow the seed
and weaved together, the joints of a chair while the trees were growing
started from seed in the fall of 1903 32 little
saplings were
selected
in 1907, and in 1914 the chair was completed.
" After I had planted 32 trees all box elders, in the spring of 1907,"
said Mr Krusback, "I left them to grow in their new home for a year
until they were six feet tall, before beginning the chair. In
the
spring of 1908 I gradually began the work of training the young and
pliable stems to grow gradually in the shape of a chair. Most
of
this work consisted in bending the stems of these trees and tying and
grafting them together so as to grow, if possible with all the joints
cemented by nature. This was largely an experiment with me
and
it was with a great deal of interest that I watched and assisted nature
in growing piece of furniture.
The first summer's growth found all the joints I had made by tying and
grafting grown firmly together. Some of the trees I
found, however, grew
much faster than others. To overcome this, I began to cut the
stems of those trees that to my notion had grown large enough. This did
not kill these trees but simply retarded their
growth so as to give the weaker trees a chance to catch up.
In this manner I let these trees grow for
seven years. During the last
two years I had only four trees growing from the
root.
These were the four that consisted the legs of the chair and
all the
other stems kept alive from these four stems because they were
grafted to them. After the seventh year all the trees were cut, making
in
all eleven years from the time the seed was sown until the chair was
finally completed"
John Krubsack on Wikipeida Link
Last known location of the chair, was at Noritage Furniture run by
Steve and Dennis Krubsack.
