'We mould trees to grow into the shape of chairs'

Alice and Gavin Munro have spent 20 years perfecting the process of growing trees into furniture shapes, particularly chairs, by training and pruning branches over specially-made molds and grafting them together—a process that typically takes 6-9 years per piece plus an additional year of drying. Inspired by Gavin's childhood observation of a bonsai tree and his personal experience with physical shaping during medical treatment, the couple established Full Grown in Derbyshire in 2006 and now have dozens of pieces in progress, including stools, benches, and chandeliers. They plan to launch the Full Grown Academy to teach others the technique and will showcase a bronze cast of one of their chairs at the Chelsea Flower Show.