SEAT WEAVING–WITHSTANDING THE TEST OF TIME

Tags

Cathryn Peters, Danish Cord, Hand Caning, Rush, seat weaving, spint, Test of Time, Wicker Woman

Seat Weaving – One name takes on so many forms down through the ages, examples are Hand Caning, Pressed Caning, Splint Bottoms, Rush Bottoms, Shaker Tape, Danish Cord. Though it is interesting to note as a Seat Weaver, the most common term applied to seat weaving is to call everything  Caning. Generally speaking when you are contacted by a customer the first words out, I have a chair to be caned! It is only minutes into the conversation the you quickly determine that the chair in question could not be further from caning, but instead it is Rush.

It is interesting to note also that Seat Weaving in all of its various forms has literally be practiced for thousands of years, of course with refinements made to the process over the year. Seat Weaving has withstood the test of time! No matter what century you have been in there have always been chairs with woven bottoms, even in todays mechanized, computer oriented and contemporary world, where people want instant gratification of everything they are doing, there is the Seat Weaver, who does his age old art by hand without the aid of computers or machines.

One thing for certain, that most chairs, some hundreds of years old , built by craftsman that lovingly set out to build chairs that often times have out lived their creators by hundreds of years. Sometimes relegated to attics, barns, outbuildings and basements for years to come until one day, someone looks at their handcrafted beauty and decided a new bottom needs to be woven so that this work of art can live once again.

Today we are in tough economic times,  much is made of the “Green Movement” and “Recycling” or even “Saving a Tree” Since 90% of all chairs are made of wood from a tree, does it not make more sense  to take and breath new life into that tree that was fallen hundreds of years ago, rather than to cut down a new tree, which in many, but not all cases today made so cheaply that it probably will not see the next century?

The age old problem that relegated many of these chairs to attics and barns still exists with us today, a shortage of seat weavers, hand caners and rush workers. I fear in todays fast paced, mechanized and instant gratification society that the “Art of Seat Weaving” will be a lost art.

It is just a shame that so many beautiful works of art from long past artisans and craftsman are left to decay away after having withstood the test of time for hundreds of years. 

I would implore anyone that preaches Recycling, Green Movement, and Saving a Tree to stop and look in shops, and at home for what they can do to practice what they preach “Breath New Life into an Old Chair” for generations to come.

RESOURCES TO REMEMBER

One important resource for finding Seat Weavers for all the various forms of seat weaving is the indispensable website resource that Cathryn Peters has built of the the past 20+ years. www.wickerwoman.com. Cathryn is both Professional  Basket weaver and Seat Weaver. over the years she has built a whole compendium of information dedicated to Seat Weaving, including “The Seat Weaving & Chair Caning  Forum” which you can ask any question on the subject and one of many professional Seat Weaver will respond to your question. Cathryn also has a blog “Weavin’ Wicker Woman” which includes updates and happenings, resources, facts and tips and much more.

One of the most important resources on the Wicker Woman site, it the “National Furniture Repair Directory” and indispensible guide to finding Seat Weavers and Chair Caners from across the country.

If you are need of any information on Seat Weaving or Seat Weavers in your area look no further, there is no better website out there and I have just listed a few links from her website, the site is filled with so much more information, please stop by, the Wicker Woman site is a learning experience in itself.

FLYING CHERRY ROCKER!!

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Bungee-Cords, Cherry, Danish Cord, Doors, God, God's-Will, Hand Caning, Hand-Caned, Lemonaide, Lemons, Positive, Prayer, Pressed Cane, rocker, Rush, Splint, Windows

 

The Flying Rocker

 

This Saturday on the way to the farmers market, I was on the road early in the morning all by myself, when in the rear view mirror, I happened to hear a snap, and look there goes a flying hand caned rocker, it used to be a very nice cherry rocker that was given to me.

Well I could have wasted all kinds energy getting mad and upset, but hey, what was the use, all the getting upset would not reverse time! The poor rocker would have been sent to ICU had it been a person. It suffered a major broken rocker, it poor little finial had been decapitated on the left side of the back, it had scratches and bruises, but the seat was totally intact!!

So you have to ask your self what now? Firewood? Of course not, it could be seen as a sign sent from God with a useful purpose in mind that I have actually prayed for over the past several years. Say what? You Say how can this be a good thing?

When Life Gives You Lemons – Make Lemonade  or God Never Shuts a Door that He Does Not Open a Window!

Over the years, I will come home from the market on a Sat. afternoon to find poor Orphaned chairs left at my doorstep by well meaning friends and family that passed by a yard sale and found old chairs that have not had bottoms in for years, well people at the sales usually do not want to drag them back in the house and will give them away.

I tell you some have been nice, while others just need prayers and warm wood stove to go to. However I cannot bring myself to get rid of the ones that are on the edge of ify, So several years ago I thought that I would like to take and weave the various styles of seat weaving in the chairs and then take and saw off the back and legs, and have my sample seats to hang up at the market and shows, there was just one small problem!! The most sought after seat, Hand Caned, is harder to come by in a chair in total despair!!

For years I have thought about just take one and sawing off the legs and back, but just could not bring myself to do it!! All the others I have chairs set aside for, Rush, Splint, Pressed Cane, even a set of deep artists stretchers to do a Danish Cord Seat, but no hand caning. Well don’t you see, I guess God is telling me that it is time to quit thinking about doing and do it, if I cannot seem to do the dirty work of cutting up a chair, then He will give me the chair to do, and He Did!!!

So often in Life we get mad, upset and fly off the handle, however when you stop to think did this make us feel more positive about the situation? No of course Not,it  did not do anything, the best way to look at a situation like this is now what, how can I turn this bad situation around into something that is helpful to me as well as others. Life is way to short to wander through it in a furious and upset state, sometime situations are unrepairable, we just have to look at it, and let go, and guess what life goes on from there it always does.

I was also thankful, I was on the road all alone, when the bungee snapped and the rocker when flying (looked like the scene from the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy is in the cyclone!! This situation could have much worse had there been a car behind me, everything was set in perfect time to God’s Will.

Transformations- Hand Caned to Rush

Tags

Bird's Eye Maple, Caning, Cattail, Chairs, Hand Caning, Maple, packing, Rush, Tiger Maple, time capsule, Word Press Problems

Last week I had the pleasure to work on a set of chair that originally were hand caned. One would think that once hand caned always hand canned! Not so thanks to the ingenuity of a wood worker of yesteryear.

The amazing thing of removing a genuine rush or even fiber rush seat done decades ago; is that sometimes it can be a mini time capsule full of mystery and surprise. These two chairs were just that. The original genuine rush seats yielded its hidden treasures. Once the old seat was removed I found packing material in the form of crumpled newspaper clippings from a Troy New York newspaper, dated 1935! However being very brittle, it revealed to me that it was the used car section of the paper. Did you know that in 1935 you could buy a used 1929 Buick Sedan for $60.00?

The mystery of these chair do not stop here, they were originally hand caned, and re worked to fit a drop in rush seat. This would tell us that back in 1935 it was no easier for some to find a hand caner in those day either. So the chairs were modified to accept a drop in Rush seat. This is the first time I had seen a chair like this but as the pictures will show this worked out beautifully for these Bird’s Eye and Tiger Maple dining room chairs.

I am hoping to get pictures of the finished chairs to post, I did not because there were done in a Rush (pun) I will need to get with the customers and get pictures of their finished chairs, to post.

The Maple trim that you see going around the rush drop in seat, are the strips that cover the underlying hand caning holes.

This is the original drop in seat with genuine rush bottom, note the decorative corner blocks.

Please not the underneath side of a genuine rush seat, since the rope is actually acheived by laying cattail leave one upon the other in a graduated fashion and hand twisting them to form the rope as you continue to rush the chair, this results in the ends of the leaves protruding fromt he back of the chair seat. As this photo shows.

This photo shows how the drop in seat just slips out of its holding space in the center of the chair.

Bottom of the chair, reveals the hand caned chair seat, and the blocks placed in the corners to support the rushed drop in seats.

Pressed Cane and Rush Seats this Week

Tags

Austrailia, Cane, Chairs, Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Chairs, Eucalyptus Furniture, Fiber Rush, Furniture, Genuine Rush, Hand Crafted, Oak, Pressed Cane, Rush, Word Press Problems

Eucalyptus Chair-Australia

Well the week ahead looks like we will be honing our skills on pressed cane and rush seats. In the studio we now have several oak chairs with pressed cane seats, in addition is several nice chairs from a customer in Northern Virinia, that were aquired while they were living in Singapore. These chairs were hand made in Australia and are of Eucalyptus Wood, they are finely detailed with Queen Anne Legs. These chairs are very elegant and have pressed cane seats, as well as backs, however just the seats need replacing.

There are also a pair of Oak dinning room chairs with small pressed cane seats, typical of this style of chair, as compared to the Eucalyptus chairs above, which have the entire sitting area of the chair in pressed/sheet cane.

The final chair in the studio in pressed cane is a black dinning chair, which need gluing and clamping in several places before the seat is replaced.

The Rush chair on hand to do at this time are Hitchcock in design, one having the drop in seat, meaning tht the framework that the rush is done on pops out of the chair, it is re-rushed and put back and held in place with screws. The second originally done in genuine rush (you twist the rope itself by hand) from cattail leaves into a hand twited rope and rush the chair from start to finish. This art while done years ago, has been widely replaced by the use of Fiber Rush (a tightly twisted brown kraft paper) that forms a rope, from that it is woven onto the seat or drop-frame. Asa “Genuine Rush is costly and time consuming and is usually reserved for heirlooms and museum quality work in today’s world.”

Oak Pressed Cane Chair

Seat Detail

The second picture shows a broken side piece that needs to be glued, and clamped and screwed back into place before the cane can be installed.

The two pictures on the left show an Oak Chair, which the pressed cane has totally worn out.

When the new cane has been installed, the cane will be stained to give it an aged appearance.

Rush Seats

Next on the list for this week is the replacement of two rush seats. One having a genuine rush seat that has deteriorated and will be replaced with Fiber Rush. Hitchcock style chairs usually incur a dis-assembly/re-assembly charge, as you have to remove button covers in the rear of the chair, also prying out wood strips from around the chair and removing a front decorative piece that is screwed into place, this forms a decorative as well as protective frame work around the rushed interior of the seat.  All of this takes time to do just to get to the seat itself before rushing can take place.

The second chair has what is known as a drop in seat, it has been rushed with fiber rush that has worn and broken on the front rail, this is the common place for most rush to weaken and brake, as it gets all the weight and pressure from the thighs rubbing along the front edge of the seat. The interior of this seat is removable, however in some ways it it makes it more difficult over the rushing taking place directly on the chair rails itself.

Hitchcock Style Genuine Rush Chair

Hitchcock Style Genuine Rush Close Up

Note the back, side and front wood trim that needs to be removed and replaced in order to get to the seat to be woven.

In some cases there are wooden dowels or buttons in the rear behind the seat that need to be removed, that cover screws to release the wood frame on this type of chair.

This seat is not that way, most of those have heavier wide trim going around the seat.

Underside of Genuine Rush Seat

The next chair is the Hitchcock style with the removable drop in seat, where the inner frame must be removed in order that the rushing can take place, while this seems to be a simple task, it is much easier to re-rush in the chair frame. Nails or small strips or blocks of wood need to be tacked into place where the top of the leg posts would be normally, this is to hold the new rush in place until the finished seat can be replaced into the chair.

Drop In Rush Close Up

Modern day manufacturer’s of Rush Style Chairs, that specialize in mass production often resort to the drop in seat, as the chair can be manufactured in one country, and the seat in another or in another totally separate area of the factory, the assembled in another.

Premium furniture manufacturer’s such as Suter’s Hadcrafted Furniture- Harrisonburg, Virginia and Chlore”s of Madison, Virginia still rush the chairs they make right in the chair and do not use drop in frames. I am sure there are many others, however this is still done mainly by manufacturer’s of Hand Crafted Furniture, not neccessarily mass produced.

Pictures of the finished chairs will be posted in a separate post, later this week.

Please Note: The layout of this article is not the way it is supposed to be. I have found that Word Press has a mind of its own. It shows you what you think you will get, publishes something entirely differnt. Please be patient until I can find out how to correct this.