In the last 20 years, bamboo has literally taken hold in nooks and crannies throughout the Western world.

A few roots and stems called culms planted here and there have grown into rambling, exotic groves, dotting the landscape with their magnificent, leafy forms. Growers have acquired and propagated bamboo plants suitable to a temperate climate, and Western landscapes and gardeners have embraced bamboo for its lush foliage and striking form.

Likewise, bamboo poles, long used almost exclusively by Far Eastern and South American cultures, are now readily accessible. As Westerners realize the strength and resiliency of this giant grass, they find practical applications in their own world, such as the Greenlanders who use bam-boo poles to support their lifelines in blinding whiteouts and the companies in North America that manufacture laminated bamboo flooring.

In short, awareness of bamboo is spreading, and the material is increasingly used for decorative purposes in the West. The Craft and Art of Bamboo is the first Western book to explain techniques for designing and building with bamboo in language that interested professionals and amateurs can understand. To many of us, bamboo's cylindrical, hollow form is mysterious compared to the familiar squared, solid lumber used for most Western building purposes. This book is intended as a guide to help you create a wide range of home and garden items made with bamboo.

How did I begin my own love affair with bamboo? I first stumbled upon bamboo groves in the early 1980s while harvesting kudzu vines to weave into sculptural baskets. I was so awestruck by the giant, primitive stalks and dense growth, that for the first several encounters, I dared not even enter a grove. Then a friend took me to visit a 25-year-old grove along a slow-moving river in the southeastern United States. I was most impressed by the grove's boundless energy: its growth along acres of river bank; the vibrant, tall culms bursting with leaves that catch the sunlight; and the almost impenetrable ground cover of accumulated dead poles and branches leaning against each other in all directions. Not knowing exactly what to do with bamboo, however, I put it in the back of my mind and waited for an opportunity to work with it.

In early 1990, I was asked to create an environmental sculpture for an Earth Day celebration in Atlanta, Georgia. I envisioned a piece called the Earthball, measuring 10 feet (2,9 m) in diameter and constructed of natural, local materials woven together by Atlantans. The first challenge was figuring out what material to use for a spherical frame that would keep its shape while supporting hundreds of pounds of woven vines. My mind's eye returned to the long, green culms of bamboo. Experimentation proved what I expected: bamboo poles don't bend. Then I remembered a crude bamboo splitting device I'd seen workers using years before at the Bamboo Farm near Savannah, Georgia. We rigged up a similar device and split a truckload of culms into splints. Tying the splints together into long, thin bundles, we successfully wove and tied the bundles into a spherical framework. The process and the result were magical, a celebration of working together with each other and the earth's bounty.

Energized by the Earthball, I was ready to further experiment with Pamboo. I received grant money to explore bamboo as a new craft material for the West,

and soon after, in a moment of serendipitous timing, a Buddhist monk invited me to join him and a small group of Americans for three weeks' travel in Japan. Traveling through rural countryside and crowded cities, I saw bamboo lots of it made into everyday functional objects such as brush brooms, supports for ancient tree limbs, and even long, bamboo tweezers for a shopkeeper to grab chunks of tofu! I saw bamboo fences, too. I was enchanted by the simple beauty of their construction and amazed by the variety of styles and applications used to build them. With the generous assistance of my Japanese guide and hosts, I returned to the United States with two all-purpose bamboo knives, ready to create with bamboo.

Months later, I held a reception to show the bamboo fences and screens I had made for an urban wildlife habitat. Guests came to celebrate bamboo, to drink kakicha tea from bamboo cups, eat nori rolls from bamboo trays, and view an art form new to many of them. Since that time, I've continued to learn about bamboo. My vision is that as culms in the West continue to multiply, so will the number of Westerners growing and crafting with this most amazing plant.

Are you ready to get started? You can choose from projects in The Craft and Art of Bamboo to make contemporary structures for your landscape, garden, and home. You'll find that what appears strikingly beautiful is not always difficult! Most of the bamboo fences, screens, trellises, accessories, and other projects in this book are straightforward in construction once you've assembled the necessary tools and materials, and learned a few basics.

To further inspire and energize your creativity, each chapter contains images of the work of contemporary Pamboo artists. They are the pioneers in this new field who felt an affinity with bamboo and applied themselves to learning about it by trial and error, observation, and research. Their work gives us a glimpse of the diversity that arises when a localized material Pecomes part of the global economy.

Relax in your favorite spot and learn about bamboo. Then visualize your landscape, garden, works of art, integrating naturally into your nooks and crannies. Guaranteed to bring new energy to your environment!

See chapter 2 - East Meets West North Meets South

See Chapter 3 - Harvesting and Preparing Bamboo 

Article written by Carol Strangler