Seat-Weaving
Services & Teaching by Jo Rusin
Seat Weaver -- Beyond the Ordinary
Have a chair that needs a new seat, or would like a class or individual consultation on seat weaving?
Contact Jo at [email protected], or 228-466-4891 (landline) or 228-342-1280 (cell). OR FIND A SEAT WEAVER IN YOUR AREA If you do not live near Jo on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, talk with the furniture refinishers in your area. Also, ask the antique dealers and upholsterers. They will know who does this. Be persistent, if the first person you ask doesn't know anyone. If they tell you they can get it done for you, I suggest that you say you really need to talk directly to the person, who does the work, about your chairs. You should talk with them, and, if possible, see their work and get an idea about their pricing and their backlog. The refinisher may be able to get the work done for you, but you will pay more, and you will never meet the seat weaver. If you are interested in doing it yourself, I highly recommend the how-to videos on Peerless Rattan, www.PeerlessRattan.com, a chair caning material business that has been around for over 100 years. There are a lot of online videos out there, but these are the best and easiest to follow, in my opinion. |
Since she wove a new cane seat in an old rocking chair over 40 years ago, Jo Rusin has been fascinated with the history, creativity, and comfort of woven chair seats.
After retiring from the Army, she began weaving chairs seats as a business in 1993, first outside Atlanta, GA and now back where her roots began on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In addition to re-weaving chairs for customers, she has been teaching this time honored craft for over 25 years. She is an Instructor Emeritus with the John C. Campbell Folk School and has taught in a variety of community education programs. Thanks to her hands-on instruction, more than 245 people from New York to Louisiana to the Netherlands are able to cane and weave their own chairs. Jo believes that it is her job to make you successful, and also for her classes to be fun. Jo weaves a variety of styles to include laced cane, flat reed, fibre rush, binder cane, modern Shaker tape, and machine woven cane. Although most customers prefer the traditional brown materials, incorporating colors into her weaving has become a passion for Jo. Seat weaving - beyond the ordinary. HGTV Home Town recently featured Jo , weaving a fibre rush headboard for a restored home in Laurel, MS. To view the show, see https://watch.hgtv.com/tv-shows/home-town/full-episodes/inspired-by-the-sea NOTE: Jo is also the author of numerous military leadership books, based on her career in the US Army. See www.JoRusin.com |