Famous Wood Chip Christmas Tree of the Ore Mountains Erzgebirge

This craftsman uses mostly his feel for the wood to create these incredible Span Trees (Spanbaum) in the Seiffener Volkskunst Studio in the Erzgebirge Region of Germany.
Like many of the items Gingerbread World imports from Germany these beautiful trees go by many names. I wonder if that's because so many of the items we import have been made in Germany in the traditional way for centuries...over hundreds of years they just come to be known by all sorts of names. Span Trees are also called Spanbaum, chip trees, splinter trees, shaved wooden trees, twilled trees or curled trees.

Using a method developed in the 1930's, the trees are hand carved from linden wood, curl-by-curl, layer-by-layer. The craftsman hand cuts hundreds of precisely curled “branches” made with only a chisel. Trees come in many sizes from a tiny 5 cm to a towering 1 meter high.

Gingerbread World does not stock these trees but we would be happy to special order them for you from our friends at Seiffener Volkskunst.

You will find them in our shop as part of other items such as the Choir of Carolers Pyramid. Also find these special trees surrounding a colourful Santa Gnome in the Modern Design Pyramid with Tea Light candles.

Kind of cool that I have personally seen the gentleman in the video at work in the studio in Seiffen. Visiting Seiffen - the town in the Erzgebirge Region famous for folk art - I got to visit a number of small workshops where artisans create the Nutcrackers, Smoker and Pyramids that we carry in the shop.

Cheers!

Tamara
Owner @ Gingerbread World