In a recent ramble around New York, we came upon this classical iron fence, transformed by grapevine. The fence acts like a loom or structure through which someone wove grapevine in and out to make for much greater privacy and a warmer, more organic feel.

And of course, that got us looking up grapevine (which we use for smoking foods; stay tuned for a post on that), and how to use it, and then imagining other applications for it…

There are lots of how-to’s online, including this one that advises harvesting vines in the fall.  We stumbled on Making Bentwood Trellises, Arbors, Gates & Fences (Rustic Home Series) at Amazon; it has lots of images and info about various techniques including using sapplings instead of grapevine. We love taking a found idea and applying it in other way…

We can think of many applications of this technique: a room screen for starters…

Right after we wrote this up, a Holton Rower sent us this photo; it seems grapevine structures have a long history…