I recently wove a set of four ladderback chairs using dropcloth fabric. I put them at my store. They aren't in my booth. Another vendor had a vintage library table from Auburn, Alabama and the wood from that table went perfectly with my chairs. The look great together.
The dropcloth fabric was a real mess to work with. It ravels horribly. On the other hand, the messy edges of each strip really give the finished seats more character.
I wove another lone chair with brighter fabrics. I used to use a real mix of fabrics and colors. The last time I did that (see my Rocker Re-Do) I decided it turned out way too busy to suit me. This time I stuck to a bit of a color palette - red, white, and pale green. It's bright, but in a nice folksy way.
It's in my booth on top of a table. There's another photo of it in yesterday's post.
You might recognize the green paint on this chair. It's one of the ones I painted while trying to find my perfect green. (See Experimenting with Green Chairs and one of my favorite posts - Smitten with Green) I really roughed this chair up, going for a very chippy vintage look. It was fun to do. I put the chair out on my porch for a photo and almost didn't have the heart to take it to my booth. I'm selling it for $24, which is ridiculously low for the work I put in it. Oh well. It was fun. I saw a similar version on Etsy for $140 plus $30 shipping. I wonderful if she has ever actually sold one of her chairs for that much. I should probably mark any future chairs I weave a little higher.
The woven seats hold up well. I have one that I wove over a decade ago. It has been on a porch the whole time. The fabric shows some fading but is still very strong. It's in better shape that a chair with a rush bottom would have been!
The next seats I weave will probably be for me. I have four wonderful, large, oak rockers given to me by a friend, waiting to be cleaned up, painted and woven. I'd really like to tackle that project in the next month or so.
