SILVER RIVER CENTER for CHAIR CANING

Silver River Center for Chair Caning is operated by two chair nerds on a mission to cultivate and inspire a reverence for a worldwide chair caning legacy.

Our vision is to promote an enthusiasm for the craft through education, published work, restoration, and travel.

We are excited to announce the arrival of our new instructional book, The Woven Chair, published by Blue Hills Press in 2025! Purchase from us directly, or other small businesses like HH Perkins, The Country Seat, Peerless Rattan, or the usual online outlets.

Watch our @SilverRiverChairs YouTube channel for virtual tours, weaving guides, and lots of nerdy goodness.

We are excited to join Craft in America’s initiative Handwork 2026 – Celebrating 250 years of American Craft. Our first event will be an Open House on January 17, 2026, this will include hands-on weaving, and a book signing! Additionally, we added some new classes to encourage and grow our chair nerd community. NEW Community Classes will happen once a month from March-September on a Saturday and will include an oak footstool and all materials and tools to weave the project. Cost is $50-$150 per student.

After decades of attempting to dispel the myth that chair caning is a dying art, in 2024, we saw how quickly it can get swept away. The catastrophic flooding in the Appalachian mountains was devastating to our community, rich in craft. We are so grateful to the chair nerd community for reaching out and donating to our rebuilding efforts. We want to honor your generosity and kindness in our new location on Main St., Weaverville, NC,  just 10 minutes North of Asheville. 

Silver River is an official education center of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. We teach small classes at our shop as well as offsite at venues like John C Campbell Folk School (2-week mentorship August 2026) & Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts (Nov 2026).

Memberships include The SeatWeavers’ Guild, The Furniture Society, The American Craft Council, The River Arts District Association, and we are a heritage member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild (Brandy is a 4th Generation Chair Weaver). We are proud to honor a family tradition, the craft, and all chair nerds (past, present, and future) with Silver River Center for Chair Caning.

Silver River is open Mon-Fri 10-5 by appointment

• MUSEUM UPDATE: One year after Hurricane Helene forced us to move locations, we have finally set up the museum! Enjoy our collection of corn shuck chairs, a green woodworking exhibit, #canespotting displays, historic WNC chairs, woven chair ephemera, mid-century and Scandinavian displays, and our new acquisition, a woven bench from the NYC Subway System! It feels great to have the chairs on display for the education of the masses.
• Enjoy our ever-expanding reference library and educate yourself on ancient and global traditions.
• We launched over 30 small chair weaving businesses during our 15 years in the River Arts District. We are excited to continue training and advising aspiring weavers in our new location.
• Sales of chair nerd t-shirts, stickers, postcards, and bookmarks support the proliferation of chair nerd culture
• Hire us to speak and demonstrate at museums, craft shows, schools, woodworkers’ associations, etc. A Brief History of Chair Caning is a slideshow timeline that covers 5,000 years and spans the globe. It is rich in historical images, astonishing displays of weaving materials, and contemporary makers with woven seating.
• We love hosting field trips and group classes/demos/tours

Note: Our restoration waitlist is often at least 6 months out. Restoration inquiries should be emailed to [email protected] and should include photos of the chair attached to the email.