Furniture is, quite obviously, an essential part of human society. Since well before the beginning of recorded history, people have been making use of at least some form of crafted furniture, and before that there can be little doubt that they made use of advantageous parts of their surroundings, such as well-shaped rocks or logs, with a similar end result. While the presence of furniture has not changed in all of this time, though, it can be certainly said that the furniture itself has very much changed over the years. In fact, essentially every aspect of furniture has changed, with the possible exception of its basic purpose.
People still sit on chairs and set thing on tables, so change can only go so far. However, one of the most interesting aspects to look at chance through over time are the materials used in the creation of the furniture. Some materials, such as stone, have largely disappeared, replaced by new things such as plastics. And other materials have remained. Take as an example the wicker garden furniture that many people have in their gardens. Believe it or not, that wicker garden furniture is the modern incarnation of an ancient legacy of furniture construction.
The processes that are used in the making of that wicker garden furniture are nothing new. They have been used, in some variation or another, since the days of the ancient Egyptians, and perhaps even farther back. Yes, wicker has its roots in the cultures of days long gone, where people had to make their furniture out of whatever they had on hand. While peoples such as the ancient Egyptians might not have had an abundance of all building materials, but there is one thing that they had a virtually endless supply of: reeds.
The Nile River, you see, had banks that were lined with reeds by the thousands. Of course, with so many of these reeds around, it was only natural that the ancient Egyptians would find a constructive use for them, and that they did by weaving the reeds together into wicker baskets and furniture which were used for centuries in the ancient Egyptian empire.
However, the wicker garden furniture you know and love had a long ways yet to go before reaching its present day form. As time went on, the practice of weaving reeds into wicker furniture and various wicker containers began to spread. At the time, Egypt was the trade capital of the Mediterranean area, and when money changes hands, culture often does as well.
And so it was that the process of making wicker objects spread throughout the world, showing up very prominently in medieval European cultures, as well as many other places. People began using materials other than the reeds that were used in Egypt, such as willow rods, and other flexible woods that would not break when woven (such as bamboo.) Eventually as technology allowed, people even began using synthetic materials. And that brings the history of your wicker garden furniture to the present, although chances are, there are many years of wicker history yet to be written.
Copyright © Jared Winston, 2006. All Rights Reserved.
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