Image: Earth to People/ James Han
New York design studio Earth to People has launched its first furniture collection, Salvage and Sap, which uses natural tree sap instead of synthetic glues.
The collection of eight furniture and lighting pieces is made from reclaimed aluminium and wind-felled cedar sourced from Squamish, British Columbia, Canada. And instead of conventional, polluting synthetic binders, the studio uses pure tree sap.
Earth to People co-founders Jordan and Brittany Weller aimed to create a collection that revives ancient manufacturing practices, consciously avoiding “toxic and mass-produced” materials.
Tree sap is believed to be the first glue, with its use dating back as far as 45,000 years ago. “It’s a potent all-purpose adhesive,” the Wellers explained to Dezeen Magazine, noting that trees naturally produce more sap than needed for healing, making it an “incredibly renewable resource.”
To prepare the adhesive, tree sap is heated to make it more fluid. This is then filtered through metal mesh and cheesecloth to remove bark and other debris, leaving a purified pine resin ready for use as glue.
The collection includes a striking floor lamp, made from cedar shingles taken from a 300-year-old tree. These shingles are stitched together with hand-woven cedar bark cord and topped with a pleated timber lampshade. The Wellers say this lamp embodies the “ancient stewardship principle of harnessing every part of the tree to ensure nothing is wasted, including the bark.”
Images: Earth to People/ James Han
Each log used for the wooden furniture is air-dried in Squamish and precise GPS coordinates track the origin of the timber, a crucial detail for Jordan Weller, who grew up in British Columbia, a region with a history of environmentally damaging logging practices.
The Wellers firmly believe that tree sap could be used globally as an alternative to synthetic glues. The studio, founded in 2023, operates across British Columbia, New York and Texas, and plans to release its own line of hand-harvested sap soon.
At Only Natural, we know that the details are as important as the concept. What’s the point in using natural materials if you smother them with synthetic chemicals? Earth to People avoid this and, when their line of sap goes on sale, it will be a lot easier for other designers to do the same.
