Earth to People binds timber furniture with tree sap

New York design studio Earth to People has swapped synthetic glue for tree sap to bind its debut furniture collection, which features monolithic chairs hand-crafted from centuries-old cedar.

Called Salvage and Sap, the collection includes eight pieces of furniture and lighting made from a mixture of reclaimed aluminium and wind-felled cedar sourced from Squamish, British Columbia. The pieces were glued together with pure tree sap instead of polluting synthetic binders.

"Tree sap is believed to be the first glue," said Earth to People co-founders Jordan and Brittany Weller, who sought to create a collection using ancient manufacturing practices that eschew "toxic and mass-produced" materials.

"It's a potent all-purpose adhesive that's use dates back to as early as 45,000 years ago," they added.

Among the wooden furniture is a monolithic chair hand-planed from three rectilinear pieces of cedar sourced from a tree that is over 400 years old, according to the studio.

To join the timber together, the Wellers combined wooden dowels from the cedar offcuts with sap extracted from a pine tree. Using a hatchet, the duo chipped away at the part of the tree where a healthy amount of sap had accumulated, rather than mining random parts of the trunk.

"Trees usually produce more sap than needed to heal wounds, so it proves to be an incredibly renewable resource," the pair explained.

After the sap was collected, it was heated to form a liquid, which was filtered through metal mesh and a cheesecloth to remove bark and other debris. The result is a purified pine resin that can be used as glue.

Another piece in the collection is a floor lamp crafted from cedar shingles extracted from a 300-year-old tree and stitched together with hand-woven cedar bark cordage. The chunky lighting is topped by a pleated timber lampshade.

"The lamp implements the ancient stewardship principle of harnessing every part of the tree to ensure nothing is wasted, including the bark," said the Wellers.

Aluminium salvaged from local recycling depots was used to create the collection's metal pieces. Among the selection is a cylindrical table lamp with a brushed finish and an oversized rectilinear sconce.

Some of the furniture combines timber and aluminium, including a boxy armchair finished with a bespoke cotton and hemp cushion stuffed with cedar shavings salvaged from the design process.

The Wellers explained that they were informed by ancient practices of collecting, repurposing and reworking metal when selecting the reclaimed aluminium.

"For a resource that was both valuable and laborious to extract, ancient peoples sought to reuse metals whenever possible," said the pair. "The salvaged aluminium pieces are a nod to this mindful past."

Each log used to create the wooden furniture was air dried, rather than kiln-dried in Squamish and tracked with precise GPS coordinates so consumers can locate where their timber comes from.

"This is particularly important for Jordan, who grew up in British Columbia – a place with a history of unethical and harmful logging practices that have done considerable damage to ecosystems and habitats," said the Wellers.

Earth to People was founded in 2023. The studio works across British Columbia, New York and Texas.

Designers all over the world are finding innovative ways to make the most of trees. Last year, Danish practice Natural Material Studio created four biomaterials out of sawdust salvaged from the sawmill of flooring manufacturer Dinesen.

More recently, Spanish designer Jorge Penadés turned discarded roots of olive trees into furniture and small objects and unveiled the pieces at Madrid Design Festival in February.

The photography is by James Han.

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