Real Handmade Woven-Wood Chairs

History

• Archaeologists uncovered a woven daybed belonging to Egyptian pharaoh King Tutankhamun. Weaving wood together by hand to create furniture is still practiced today in cultures worldwide.

Chair Caning

• The art of weaving wood to create a chair is called chair caning or chair-seat weaving. Traditional hand caning is a seven-step method of weaving individual strands of cane through holes drilled in the seat's perimeter, resulting in an octagonal pattern. Fancy weaving designs include star of david, daisy and snowflake pattern.

Materials

• You can also identify a handmade woven-wood chair by the material. Most seats are woven with cane or rattan. If the seat has a herringbone pattern, it was woven using splints, or strips, of wood such as ash, oak or hickory. Natural cattail leaf can be found on expensive, antique chairs. Newer pieces utilize a cheaper paper-fiber rush. Cowboy style or rustic pieces will many times have leather or flat reeds as panels on wooden rockers. Other materials include Oriental sea grass and Danish cord.

Wicker Furniture

• Furniture completely woven of pliable materials such as reeds, willow or cane is called wicker. There is not a tree or plant material called wicker. You can identify a handmade wicker piece because it will be made completely of woven materials. Wicker must be cared for because restoration and repair for wicker can be costly.