Adventures in Chair Caning
As I promised, here is the entry on chair caning. But before we get started, this is the link to a very important entry, which I started editing yesterday and which I finally posted today. I future-dated it, so it may not show up in your friends' posts. But it's definitely worth reading and also contains links to some of my other essays. Hopefully, these will generate some comments. It really is no fun posting for nothing, and no one has been commenting on anything lately!
General Political Views
http://theophania.livejournal.com/595613.html
Now on we go! As most of you know, my main goal is to work for a furniture store, specifically in chair caning, and to sell baskets and soaps on the side. Of course, my problem has always been finding a teacher. That changed when Cathryn Peters, best known as The Wicker Woman, said that she'd try to help me in my search. This was a real honour for me, as she's quite famous. Her site is here.
http://www.wickerwoman.com/
Last week, she reposted the post that I made to the Facebook Basket Weavers group to another group, known as the SeatWeaver's Guild. A man there, named James Boerman, then posted about a place called SAGE Elder Care.
http://www.sagenj.org/
As the name implies, this is a facility which deals with several aspects of caring for the elderly, including Meals on Wheels. More importantly, for my purposes, they have a chair caning workshop! All who work there are volunteers. Customers bring in their chairs and they fix them, with all the proceeds going towards SAGE. At any rate, I was told to contact a woman named Marsha, which I did by e-mail. I explained to her that I was totally blind and told her of my quest to find a teacher. In no more than an hour, she phoned me and expressed her willingness to teach me, along with Bruce, another volunteer. She said that she'd never heard of stores which catered exclusively to caning, and I filled her in on a few that I found, including one owned and operated by a blind chair caner! On the up side, she also told me that work had been slow during the summer, but as soon as they put an add in the Star Ledger (a local newspaper), the chairs seemed to spring up overnight. On average, each chair costs between $120 to $150 to recane. But one woman brought in two chairs that, due to their complexity and the extreme amount of work needed to fix them, will cost her $1200 (twelve hundred dollars) each! So if I don't get hired by a store, I may buy chairs from Ebay or other places, refurbish them and resell them or see about starting my own business. That out of the way, we made an appointment for this passed Monday.
When I told Mom, she immediately dismissed my interests as nonsense and said that it was all up to me to take care of things. I believe it's worth noting that I had never ridden alone with Access Link (paratransit) and had never called them on my own to arrange an appointment. But I was so determined that I made the call and scheduled a ride for that Monday. The program runs from 9 AM to 12 PM, so I knew that I needed time to get there, as it's a 37 minute trip without traffic or other pick-ups. The best time slots that I could get were 9:09 to 9:49 for home pick-up and 11:51 to 12:30 for SAGE pick-up. Mom was out of her mind with worry that the driver would drop me off in the middle of nowhere, that no one would be there to pick me up or to wait with me to go home etc. I told Marsha, and she assured me that she would be there for both. My boyfriend Spiros is usually here on Sundays, so we went to the store and I picked up some cold cuts, from which I made myself a sandwitch, in order to be prepared for the next day..
On Monday, we got up at 7, as he needed to leave to go to work. Surprisingly, I actually felt energetic, despite not sleeping well the previous night. I took my shower and was ready far ahead of schedule. The bus came at a reasonable time, but we had to pick someone else up and drop him off. The driver was well-spoken, funny and immediately put me at ease with his mannerisms. Once we were a few minutes away, I called Marsha, and sure enough, she was right there when we pulled up. I used the facilities, called Mom to assure her that I was safe, and then we went to the workshop. Bruce wasn't there that day, so it was a one-on-one lesson with Marsha. She came up with an ingenius plan to teach me the layout of the place, which is quite cluttered. She drew it on my hand with her finger as she explained it to me. Then, it happened. I saw my first caned chair! I'd actually seen one before, but was unaware it was caned. For those who have never seen such a thing, let me try to explain. The weaving feels so intricate that you could never really tell the patterns by touch alone, unless you knew the craft. If you don't try to look for one and just touch the seat, it will feel something like Swiss cheese, with many small holes, spaced close together. There are two types, hand-caning, which I'll be doing, and machine caning. When a chair has had its' cane removed, it's easy to tell which is needed. Hand-caning uses holes, in the front and the back of the chair, whereas machine-caning uses grooves. The former also utilises something called binder, which is put around the edges of the weaving. It's not strictly necessary but makes the chair look pretty. Then, she showed me two other weaving styles, called rush and splint weaving. Like caning, each gets their name from the materials used to weave the seat. The first is rush and the second is splint ash. Those look far easier than caning and the patterns are recognisable by touch. She doesn't do those, but another volunteer does, so I'm hoping to learn them in the future. She also doesn't do basketry, but perhaps someone else there can help me. I didn't ask yet.
After introducing me to a few people, Marsha said "and now I'll introduce you to your chair" which made me laugh. I'm very lucky, in that the pattern is extremely simple and easy for a beginner. There are seven steps to caning, and right now, I'm still on the first one, where I cane from front to back. This involves first finding the middle holes in both the front and the back and pulling the cane through them. Then, it's simply a matter of going through all the other holes, either from left to right or right to left, depending on where you start. The process is extremely relaxing and I could definitely see myself doing this as a career. The only thing that I'll need to get used to is standing on my feet all day. One of the funny things about cane is that, since it's such a thin and pliable material, it tends to twist. The first piece was fine but the second seemed to have a mind of its' own and really made me chuckle as I kept streightening it out. For once in my life, I was also glad to have sweaty hands, as the cane needs to be kept wet while you're working with it. There are so many different patterns to learn and I'm intrigued with the idea that, once I finish, my seat will look just like the one that I saw! I can't figure out how those holes get there and can't wait to learn more!
All too soon, it was time to go. They actually came on time, so I didn't even need to bring a lunch. The second driver didn't speak much, as he was apparently still learning English. But he did his job well and I got home safely. I tried to schedule an appointment for today, but the times that Access Link had were totally ridiculous and would never have worked out with the limited time for working. Sage is closed this Monday, but I'll be going back on Wednesday. I was told that the New Jersey Commission for the Blind might be willing to pay for transportation, since this is ultimately for a career goal. So I intend on calling my counselor to see if they would be able to pay for something other than Access Link so that I don't miss days in the future.
As a sidenote, even though she's still not thrilled about seatweaving, Mom finally broke down and said she was extremely proud of me for doing all of this on my own. The hug she gave me went streight to my soul and made me feel more proud of myself than I have in a very long time. Marsha found a place, in Road Island, which teaches seatweaving to the blind, and said she'll call them to see if there are any special tricks to the trade for us. All in all, when it comes to work, I couldn't be happier right now!
General Political Views
http://theophania.livejournal.com/595613.html
Now on we go! As most of you know, my main goal is to work for a furniture store, specifically in chair caning, and to sell baskets and soaps on the side. Of course, my problem has always been finding a teacher. That changed when Cathryn Peters, best known as The Wicker Woman, said that she'd try to help me in my search. This was a real honour for me, as she's quite famous. Her site is here.
http://www.wickerwoman.com/
Last week, she reposted the post that I made to the Facebook Basket Weavers group to another group, known as the SeatWeaver's Guild. A man there, named James Boerman, then posted about a place called SAGE Elder Care.
http://www.sagenj.org/
As the name implies, this is a facility which deals with several aspects of caring for the elderly, including Meals on Wheels. More importantly, for my purposes, they have a chair caning workshop! All who work there are volunteers. Customers bring in their chairs and they fix them, with all the proceeds going towards SAGE. At any rate, I was told to contact a woman named Marsha, which I did by e-mail. I explained to her that I was totally blind and told her of my quest to find a teacher. In no more than an hour, she phoned me and expressed her willingness to teach me, along with Bruce, another volunteer. She said that she'd never heard of stores which catered exclusively to caning, and I filled her in on a few that I found, including one owned and operated by a blind chair caner! On the up side, she also told me that work had been slow during the summer, but as soon as they put an add in the Star Ledger (a local newspaper), the chairs seemed to spring up overnight. On average, each chair costs between $120 to $150 to recane. But one woman brought in two chairs that, due to their complexity and the extreme amount of work needed to fix them, will cost her $1200 (twelve hundred dollars) each! So if I don't get hired by a store, I may buy chairs from Ebay or other places, refurbish them and resell them or see about starting my own business. That out of the way, we made an appointment for this passed Monday.
When I told Mom, she immediately dismissed my interests as nonsense and said that it was all up to me to take care of things. I believe it's worth noting that I had never ridden alone with Access Link (paratransit) and had never called them on my own to arrange an appointment. But I was so determined that I made the call and scheduled a ride for that Monday. The program runs from 9 AM to 12 PM, so I knew that I needed time to get there, as it's a 37 minute trip without traffic or other pick-ups. The best time slots that I could get were 9:09 to 9:49 for home pick-up and 11:51 to 12:30 for SAGE pick-up. Mom was out of her mind with worry that the driver would drop me off in the middle of nowhere, that no one would be there to pick me up or to wait with me to go home etc. I told Marsha, and she assured me that she would be there for both. My boyfriend Spiros is usually here on Sundays, so we went to the store and I picked up some cold cuts, from which I made myself a sandwitch, in order to be prepared for the next day..
On Monday, we got up at 7, as he needed to leave to go to work. Surprisingly, I actually felt energetic, despite not sleeping well the previous night. I took my shower and was ready far ahead of schedule. The bus came at a reasonable time, but we had to pick someone else up and drop him off. The driver was well-spoken, funny and immediately put me at ease with his mannerisms. Once we were a few minutes away, I called Marsha, and sure enough, she was right there when we pulled up. I used the facilities, called Mom to assure her that I was safe, and then we went to the workshop. Bruce wasn't there that day, so it was a one-on-one lesson with Marsha. She came up with an ingenius plan to teach me the layout of the place, which is quite cluttered. She drew it on my hand with her finger as she explained it to me. Then, it happened. I saw my first caned chair! I'd actually seen one before, but was unaware it was caned. For those who have never seen such a thing, let me try to explain. The weaving feels so intricate that you could never really tell the patterns by touch alone, unless you knew the craft. If you don't try to look for one and just touch the seat, it will feel something like Swiss cheese, with many small holes, spaced close together. There are two types, hand-caning, which I'll be doing, and machine caning. When a chair has had its' cane removed, it's easy to tell which is needed. Hand-caning uses holes, in the front and the back of the chair, whereas machine-caning uses grooves. The former also utilises something called binder, which is put around the edges of the weaving. It's not strictly necessary but makes the chair look pretty. Then, she showed me two other weaving styles, called rush and splint weaving. Like caning, each gets their name from the materials used to weave the seat. The first is rush and the second is splint ash. Those look far easier than caning and the patterns are recognisable by touch. She doesn't do those, but another volunteer does, so I'm hoping to learn them in the future. She also doesn't do basketry, but perhaps someone else there can help me. I didn't ask yet.
After introducing me to a few people, Marsha said "and now I'll introduce you to your chair" which made me laugh. I'm very lucky, in that the pattern is extremely simple and easy for a beginner. There are seven steps to caning, and right now, I'm still on the first one, where I cane from front to back. This involves first finding the middle holes in both the front and the back and pulling the cane through them. Then, it's simply a matter of going through all the other holes, either from left to right or right to left, depending on where you start. The process is extremely relaxing and I could definitely see myself doing this as a career. The only thing that I'll need to get used to is standing on my feet all day. One of the funny things about cane is that, since it's such a thin and pliable material, it tends to twist. The first piece was fine but the second seemed to have a mind of its' own and really made me chuckle as I kept streightening it out. For once in my life, I was also glad to have sweaty hands, as the cane needs to be kept wet while you're working with it. There are so many different patterns to learn and I'm intrigued with the idea that, once I finish, my seat will look just like the one that I saw! I can't figure out how those holes get there and can't wait to learn more!
All too soon, it was time to go. They actually came on time, so I didn't even need to bring a lunch. The second driver didn't speak much, as he was apparently still learning English. But he did his job well and I got home safely. I tried to schedule an appointment for today, but the times that Access Link had were totally ridiculous and would never have worked out with the limited time for working. Sage is closed this Monday, but I'll be going back on Wednesday. I was told that the New Jersey Commission for the Blind might be willing to pay for transportation, since this is ultimately for a career goal. So I intend on calling my counselor to see if they would be able to pay for something other than Access Link so that I don't miss days in the future.
As a sidenote, even though she's still not thrilled about seatweaving, Mom finally broke down and said she was extremely proud of me for doing all of this on my own. The hug she gave me went streight to my soul and made me feel more proud of myself than I have in a very long time. Marsha found a place, in Road Island, which teaches seatweaving to the blind, and said she'll call them to see if there are any special tricks to the trade for us. All in all, when it comes to work, I couldn't be happier right now!