About Our Presenters:

 

Wayne Sharp

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Wayne Sharp Chair Caner Extraordinaire. Restoring Treasured Memories.

I have these two signs on my “Caning Cave” door. The first a 90+ year old fellow caner cut out by jig saw & presented to me. I was SO VERY HONORED to have this gentleman create this for me. The second sign reminds me every time I pass through the doorway, the purpose of my work.

I am a Retired Professor from a State University here in Mankato, Minnesota. My retirement over 11 years ago allowed me to do more projects with my hands. Seat Weaving fulfills my need to work with my hands, keep my mind active & be a benefit to society. I have averaged around 50 pieces per year since my retirement.

My beginnings to chair caning are humble. My father-in-law taught me as, together, we wove two dining chairs for mother-in-law. My wife Denise began finding furniture pieces that continued my learning process. But all I knew was 7 step basic pattern, & there was no one else in the area to learn from.

On a trip to the Amana Colonies in Iowa, we found “the Largest Caned Walnut Rocker” in the world. We also found John & Lillian Peterka’s Ideas for The Experienced Caner #1 & #2. This was Wonderful for me. It opened my eyes to a new world of caning patterns.

 

 

About the same time The Internet was just starting also. My Boss told me to “try something out on this Internet thing to learn it”. So, I combined these two Head Scratchers & put them together. I bought a project chair, took notes of each step to a weaving pattern & took pictures. As I finished the weaving, I then took chair caning & learned how to create the website. www.chair-caning.com

I also produced my own versions of the Chair Caning Patterns Booklets (that are now out of stock due to printing costs).

 

 

Sue Muldoon

Sue Muldoon divides her time between 3-dimensional and 2-dimensional work. She bounces back and forth between photography, web design and graphic design to seatweaving (chair caning, wicker repair, rush, splint, etc.) and basket weaving.

Basketry started as an add-on to seat weaving because there was material begging to be used in more than one format.

Sue’s career has always been creative, from wallpaper hanging and interior painting to a lengthy career in the floral industry as designer and merchandiser. Wood carving, furniture refinishing and upcycling furniture in novel ways using unique materials like leather belts, ties and alpaca wool set her apart from traditional seatweaving methods.

Color is rampant and unapologetic.

Where some might see a chair, Sue sees a statement. She spends the majority of her time now repairing seats (an unabashed “chairnerd” and webmaster of The SeatWeavers Guild, Inc), teaching seatweaving and basketry and vending at different venues.

She considers her seatweaving work to be part functional and part emotional. Along with repairing chairs, she repairs the memories that are attached to seats that are in demise and disrepair. The joy on a client’s face when they see family history brought back to functionality is inspiring.

A frequent instructor at various woodworking schools, sheep, wool and fiber festivals, art retreats and farmers markets, she enjoys sharing seatweaving and basketmaking to new crafters and artisans.

You can see Sue’s work at www.reduxforyou.com and www.suemuldoonimages.com

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Cathryn Peters:

Hand-Twisted Cattail and Bulrush Presentation

 

Cathryn is a professional seat weaver, wicker restoration specialist, speaker, instructor, blogger, grant mentor, award-winning antler basketmaker and leader in her field with over 45+ years hands-on weaving experience.

 

Her seatweaving and antler basketry has been mentioned in many books and periodicals, as well as featured on Public TV and radio over the years.

 

Most recently, the late (2022), cabinet maker and author, Nancy Hiller, featured Cathryn’s hand-twisted bulrush and cattail rush seating with a four page spread in her English Arts and Crafts Furniture book, published in 2017.

 

Cathryn’s presentation and demo at the 2024 Gathering will be on hand-twisted cattail rush and bulrush seatweaving. This is a technique that’s near and dear to her heart and that she’s been practicing since weaving those first two Hitchcock chairs in 1977.

 

She has a special passion for passing on her skills to others so the craft of chair seat weaving does not become a truly “lost art.”

 

With that mission in mind, in 1999 Cathryn set up the comprehensive, one-stop resource and information website, https://www.WickerWoman.com

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Maggie Schwab

 

My name is Maggie Schwab, I've lived in New Ulm my whole life.  I'm 64 yrs old and retired.  I worked for 3M for 36 years but always caned & weaved chairs on the side.   Married for 43 years and we have been working on/ remodeling a house built in 1910 ever since.  I have 3 children, two daughters that ended up in Lincoln NE and one son in the TC's area, along with them, two wonderful grandsons, 10 & 6 years old.

 

I started caning 38 years ago kind of by accident.  I was refinishing some furniture and had to learn caning to finish some chairs.  A wonderful woman from Sleepy Eye showed me the way she did it and between her and a couple of "how to" books I got it figured out.  I also would be willing to try any weave as long as the old seat was available and I could try to copy it.  Soon I was as busy as ever.  I then started demo's at museums, schools and summer festivals, always finding more customers needing chairs done. I am a home based business, no shop opened to the public.

 

The weave I will be showing is what Wayne called Single Victoria or Four Way Weave?  I had no idea that it had a name!  A couple of years ago I saw a picture of a chair on-line.  Blew it up so I could see the weave and figured out how to do it on a sample seat.  Wayne saw it at one of my demo days in Le Suer and asked if I would demo at the Gathering.  So here I am!!

 

The one interesting thing about my weaving is that I did watch a blind man do it when I was a child.  My father was a cabinet / furniture maker and he worked for one of the men taught to cane as he was going blind, the shop was located here in New Ulm.  So my father would take us along sometimes and I would watch. At the time I never thought I would end up doing the same thing when I grew up. I now have a complete set of dining chairs and a rocker and several stools from the shop and that gentleman & my father.  Here in town they are called Ubl chairs, many are around and I have replaced many seats for people who still love them and continue to use them.  Just had a set of 4 from Minneapolis earlier this spring.

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Sissel's Chair Renewal

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I completed my initial woodworking training in Norway in early 1980 and after moving to Minneapolis in 1988 I developed a special interest in chair repair and restoration including weaving chair seats. I continue to work in a space in NE Minneapolis art-district that I share with a furniture designer and woodworker. 

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TSWG 2024 Annual Gathering Schedule

Blue Earth County Historical Center

Outline as of 5/26/2024

 

Friday July 26, 2024

1:00 – 4pm             Blue Earth Historical Center, 424 Warren St., Mankato Mn 56001 - Welcome Registration

                                Set up Chair Display – Bring your best showcase work, with informative Labels

                                Tickets to Tour Hubbard House & Gardens, Tour BE County History Center

                                On Your Own – Tour Betsy-Tacy-Tibb Homes, Silk Stocking area houses

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4:15 - 4:45pm        Tour Mankato via the Vine 5th floor – (Wayne Or Vine guide) meet at:

                                Vine Adult Community Center, 5th Floor, 421 E. Hickory St.

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5pm                         Social Celebration, Meet at Pub 500, 500 S. Front St. Downtown Mankato Entertainment Area

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Saturday July 27, 2024 -

BE History Center - (Room A Tables, Room B Lecture seating)

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9:00am                      Hallway - Registration, morning coffee social (David Dick coffee barista)

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                                   Room A - Set up Chair Display – Bring your best showcase work & informative Labels

9:30am                      Room B - Welcome – Wayne Sharp

                                   Room B - Welcome & Some History of Mankato – Jessica Potter, BE County History Executive Director​

10:00am                   Room B - Caning History, A Love Story, Faribault School for Blind. Blind Caners

10:45am                   Break - Counter & Hallway

11:00am                   Room A – Group Project introduction & start 11:15am 

                                  Room B - Weaving Patterns, Single Victoria, Four Way Weave (Maggie Schwab)

 

12:00-1:00               Lunch Counter – Sadaka Deli

 

1pm                          Room B - Weaving Patterns - Danish Paper Cord in Rush Pattern (Sissel)

1:45pm                     Room A – Weaving Patterns - Porch Rocker weave (Sue Muldoon)

2:30pm                     Room A - Chair Yoga (Jen Cardwell)

 

3pm                          Break - Counter & Hallway

 

3:15pm                     Room B - Advanced Caning - Improving 7 Steps to Basic Caning (Wayne) (Xs, As, Split Short Rows, Crossed Legs,                                                          knotless)Weaving With Color, Tic-Tac-Toe

4:00pm                     Room B – Minnesota Cattail Rush Harvest & Weaving (Cathryn)

6:00pm                     Room A – Banquet Dinner – Sadaka Deli

6:15pm                     Room A - Dinner Entertainment –Lauren Senden

7:15pm                     Ice Cream Social – Mom & Pop’s, 629 North Riverfront Drive (take E. 2nd St N. to E Rock St)

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Sunday July 28, 2024

BE History Center

 

9:30am                     Counter Hallway - Morning Coffee Social

10:00am                   Room B – Annual Members Meeting

10:45am                   Room A – Door Prizes

11:00am                   Room A - Tips & Tricks & Smalls, “Show Us your “Smalls”, demonstrate & sell tools & your side gig creations. ex. Reindeer,                                        Stars, Crosses, Wrapped Rocks, backpacks, wristbands, brooms, angels, keychains, etc,. Share Handouts, Sell products

12:00 noon               Lunch - Counter & Hallway - Sadaka Deli

1:00 – 3:00pm         Room A - Seat Weaving Roadshow Finish Group Project Open to the Public – Free Demonstrations, sell your smalls