Always Learning

  I believe that it is good to learn. When you are out of school and living the life that you have chosen for yourself things can get kind of, well, boring. Get up, go to work, eat lunch, work, dinner, TV, bed time.....repeat. That is one of the reasons that I choose to do just what I do, it is never boring and something new comes along just before life has a chance to fall into that pattern.
   A client came to me with a chair that she needed caned. Well in the past this was usually about an hours work and it was done.

   Not this time.

More after the jump:

   The chair needed to be handwoven with cane. Never done that, before! So I figured, "How hard can it be?"- fameous last words, right?
   When ordering the materials for the chair I also included a book that covers handwoven caning. Going through it step by step I made it work. Granted, it took much longer to do than the pre-woven variety. Instead of an hour it took around 12 hours!! Not the best use of time at work. I definitely lost my butt on this one! Well, financially at least. Overall, I learned something new: why just about everyone uses pre-woven caning, how I might be able to use this on a modern piece (there are ideas brewing), and a simple, yet, dying art.



   Now that it is known that I have the knowledge to do this I have clients asking if I can teach them, which make sense, since paying to have the chair redone would in most cases cost more than the value of  the chair. For them taking the time to learn and then weaving the chair seat )while watching TV or something) becomes both rewarding and worth it.
   So, I dare you to take on that project that might just seem to be more trouble than it is worth. The experience and the knowledge that will inevitably be gained just might make life more interesting.
Enjoy!