TORN- ONE BLOG OR SEVERAL?

Tags

baking, Basketry, blog(s), Caning, Canning, chair caning, cooking, cooking from scratch, lifestyles, Mennonite-Amish, recipes

Good Morning Everyone- I have been torn the last couple of weeks pondering my blog!

As all of you know it started out with Basketry and Chair Caning which I still do, then I added recipes that I  make, as I cook nearly everything from scratch everyday. Many recipes are Mennonite and Amish recipes.

The one thing I never wanted for my original blog was to become a mish-mash of ideas and topics. While many of you have commented and written to me privately telling you like the blog the way it is, because it introduces you to a wide variety of topics, some have written wanting to see a Cooking Blog, with recipes, pictures and posts about cooking, baking and canning, and Mennonite Life.

If I did create a blog, based solely on these things I would link it to the original Blog, like the blog I have for the Baskets for sale (which as you know has not happened yet) life seems to get in the way sometimes.

So I am asking my followers, readers out there to either write to the following ways and let me know what you think.

email mcw1961@gmail.com

or

Comment on the Blog for this post

If you know others that like to read cooking blogs you can pass this along to them and they are free to comment also. I want to thank everyone for their help in this decision!

Since for me cooking from scratch is a daily thing, a cooking blog alone is not impossible, but I would just like to see everyone’s feeling about this.

Chair Caner’s DO work in the Winter!

Tags

Caning, Chairs, farmers markets, months, shows, winter

My problem over the years has been that as long as I am demonstrating at a farmers market or show, people will flood in with chairs in the spring and summer months. Forgetting all about the winter months, no shows, no farmers markets, nothing to get in the way of working on chairs, alas, not a chair in sight.
I would just like to encourage people to remember that a caner DOES Cane in the winter, call, write or email and set up a time, for the bleak months of winter.

Caning- Age Old Art vs. Modern Technology

Tags

Art, Basketry, Caning, cell phone, computers, conveniences, modern, Old Order Mennonites

Many things in my life have been lived from ages past, when I was a teenager, I joined the Old Order Mennonites of Dayton, Virginia. Life as an Old Order Mennonite, was living in the past, shunning modern technologies, and modern conveniences, we had no radios, televisions, cell phone, automobiles, or computers: no stereos etc. In a lot of instances no electricity.

Since I left when I was 26, (now 49) very little has changed, time virtually stands still for the Old Order Mennonites, I still live in the same area I always have, the same friends that I had back then still drive horse and buggies, still live without electricity, still shun computers, and I am almost certain you will not see them tweeting,or texting  that most people take for granted today.

I can with utmost certainty tell you that I do good to write this blog, turn on this computer, and pray that I can learn how to do it all today and get to the same place tomorrow. I have no innate desire for a cell phone, nor do I even have the most remote desire to know anything about texting.  (I will add here that I do have a cell phone ,which was loaned to me by friends that I only use as a land-line due to the disability, and inability to have a land-line at this time) in the day that I get the land-line, then the cell phone goes back!

In an effort since starting this blog, to keep up with the way readers get and share information, I have added a Twitter Widget to the blog, which I am still not sure what this does, I think it shares with all of you every-time I make a post to the blog, if it does not hopefully someone out there will let me know.

This morning I also added sharing buttons to the posts which will (or should ) appear at the bottom of each post. Like I said I have not a clue how any of this works, and when I have researched I just get one big pulsating vein in the side of my head trying to understand it all.  However for the readers it is there and I hope they use it and find it useful to them.

Just like the age old art of chair caning and basket weaving, I am happy living in the past, and do not need to progress through time with all the bells and whistles this life has to offer. However I will say that I am thankful for the computer which does allow me to make new friends around the world, and see what they are doing.

Please all of you readers bare with me while I try to figure all of this modern stuff out.

What Is In A Name?

Tags

Caning, Danish Cord, Fiber Rush, Genuine Rush, Hand Caning, Names, seat weaving, Splint

What is in a name you ask?

It has amazed me over the years that I have been a “Seat Weaver” how all the various forms of seat weaving has been lumped into one category called “Caning”.

I have tried over the years to educate customers when they come to me and say I have a set of chairs to be caned, knowing that in most cases it is NOT a caned chair; but a Splint Bottom, Rush Bottom, Danish Cord, Sea-grass, or one of many forms of  seat weaving, sometimes I have gotten wicker, and it was referred to as caning.

Usually the customer will tell me it is a hand caned chair, then look at a hand caned chair and say NO, it looks nothing like that, and it turns out to be a rush chair.

It kinds of make one wonder where down the road ages past that all forms of seat weaving became Caning? I wish that I had the answer to share with all of you, however I do not.

Hand Caning- entirely woven by hand, to form the little octagonal hole pattern that becomes the seat, also known as the 7 step pattern

Pressed or Sheet Caning- Comes in a sheet form, is soaked and cut to size, then placed over top of a groove or channel cut into the chair seat, which is held in place by a reed spline. This process is much like replacing a window screen.

Genuine Rush or Fiber Rush- commonly described as being woven of a rope like material, which forms what looks like four envelope flaps with points meeting in the center.

Fiber Rush is a tightly twisted and in most cases a brown heavy kraft brown paper.

Genuine Rush- Is made from bulrushes or cattail leaves, the leaves are gathered and the rope is made entirely by hand as you weave the seat, this form of rush is very labor intensive and usually reserved for museum quality chairs.

Splint- Usually woven in a 3/3 herringbone twill pattern, sometimes 2/2 twill herringbone twill pattern, or a basket weave pattern, the latter two are more time consuming as the weave is much tighter and takes longer to pack the rows together.Splint can come in many forms, the most common today is reed splint, Oak and Hickory, here the latter two in some cases is cost prohibitive to customers as the cost is higher due to the splints being made from the tree, with a draw knife and leather chaps to split out the splints to ready for weaving.

Danish Cord- This is common in Danish Modern Furniture, again like Fiber Rush, it is a twisted paper only  made in Denmark, unlike fiber rush, it is usually finer and much harder in texture, also it is white or off white in color.

The world of “Seat Weaving” is much more complex than just caning,  there are many different style of seat weaving and all have individual names, and very different weaving styles.

I will note here that most customers look and say I never knew, so here I have tried to explain the various forms in hopes you will look at your chairs in a whole new light.

It is my aim soon to post an article with pictures of all the various forms of “Seat Weaving ” to give you a better idea of what all of this is about.