Ever have one of those chair caning jobs where you’re working on a hole-to-hole cane rocker that simply won’t stay put when you’re trying to weave the seat? The rocker moves back and forth, back and forth, and is uncooperative, making the weaving task very difficult?
Well, here’s today’s Tuesday Tip for Chair Caning–Take a couple hippo clips or spring clamp and clip one to the end of each rocker to stabilize the rocking chair. Presto! Your job just got a lot easier and at no cost to you!
I would like to rush the back seat of a rocking chair. As you know it is rectangle and not square. Would you happen to have any words of advice on accomplishing this? Thank you for the help. Merry Christmas
Hi Wayne,
When weaving the back of a rocker using paper rush one thing you need to concern yourself with is to lay the rocker down on a table that’s a proper height for you to be working on so you don’t hurt your back. I use an adjustable height table for all my weaving and also stand on an anti-fatigue mat. Find these items and more in my Comfy Workspace Items in my Amazon Store.
As far as the weaving itself goes, just treat the back as a rectangular footstool rather than a trapezoidal (wider in the front than the back). So in the square and rectangular chairs you don’t need to “square up” the seat using the short strands to fill in the gussets because there aren’t any.
Just begin on the left side and weave in a counter clockwise pattern as you would on any other rush furniture piece. Conceal all your joins within the pockets and use the hog rings and hog ring pliers to attach the ends. Take your time and be sure to check the back side every so often so it looks nice and neat too, and you haven’t overlapped any strands and the corners are all crisp and nice there, too. Hope this helps and good luck!
I use a wooden yardstick to stableize a rocking chair while working on it, although this sounds like a good idea too. The thicker the yardstick the better. I am also looking for a good source for plastic cane, that looks like real cane. Any help would be appreciated.,
Check out the advertisers on my Cane & Basket Supplies Directory™ to find your source for the plastic cane. And tell them you found them through their ad on WickerWoman.com!