Everything except Saturday 9-6 and Sunday Roadshow 2-5 will be held at Bassett’s Tavern at The New Kent Ordinary

 

Friday

1-4 pm Registration

5 pm Dinner will be available to eat at your leisure

 

Saturday

8-9 am Breakfast Buffet

 

Presenters @ Corinth Baptist Fellowship Hall

9:30 am Traditional Seat Weaving: A Conservator’s Perspective

Chris Swan

10:30 - 11:30 Hand Cane Medallion with Brandy Clements

11:30 - 12:30 Weaving with Corn Husks with Alan Dean Warren

12:45 - 1:30 County Weaver: Tools and Tricks of the Trade with Mark Cawthon

1:30 - 2:30 Box Lunches and Raffle

2:30 - 3:30 Mies van der Rohe with Lynn Phillips

3:30 - 4:15 Soda Blasting for Wicker and Rattan with Wyndham Ratcliff

5:00 - 5:45 Staining Cane and Color Matching with Jennifer Cardwell

 

6 pm Dinner Buffet

7- 9 pm Bluegrass by Highway Ramblers

 

Sunday

9-10 am Continental Breakfast Buffet

10-12 am Annual Members Meeting

Board Meeting

Info on next years Gathering in Lincoln, IN

Tips and Tricks

12 - 2 pm Box Lunches

 

Roadshow @ Corinth Baptist Fellowship Hall

2-5 pm Stools for participants, broom demos, other demos

 

Monday

11 am Tour of Colonial Williamsburg Upholstery and Furniture Labs

 

 

 

ADDRESSES

 

Bassett’s Tavern at The New Kent Ordinary

12000 New Kent Hwy

New Kent, VA 23124

 

Corinth Baptist Fellowship Hall

11650 New Kent Hwy

New Kent, VA 23124

 

Colonial Williamsburg Lab Tour

BHW Collections Building

309 First Street

Williamsburg, VA 23185

 

About Our Presenters:​

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Christopher M. Swan

Senior Conservator, Wooden Artifacts

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Williamsburg, Virginia, USA​

 

Chris is a furniture and wooden artifacts Conservator at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Virginia where he has been since February 1999, and where he also completed his third-year graduate internship, and a Getty post-graduate internship from 1994-1996. In between positions in Williamsburg, he served two years as the Mellon Fellow and then as Assistant Conservator in Furniture Conservation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Chris is a 1985 graduate of the University of Dallas, and a 1995 graduate of the Buffalo State College Art Conservation Master’s Degree Program.

 

Among other subjects, he has lectured on: “Silvering, A Lost Baroque Style,” “The Art and Materials of Japanning,” Photo-documentation of Furniture, Handling, Packing and Crating Furniture for Collectors, Caring for Wooden Artifacts, Wood Identification for Collectors, Common 18th Century Painted Furniture, and The Making and Use of Reproductions at Colonial Williamsburg, Picture Frames: Style, Materials, and Conservation, and Minimally Invasive Upholstery Systems. He is an Associate Member of the American Institute for Conservation, and of the Virginia Conservation Association

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​​Mark Cawthorn

Mark Cawthon is a retired U S Navy Chief 1976-1997. I was stationed on ships down in Norfolk (D & S Piers). At first I was a cane puller at a very young age and then started weaving at 13 years of age. My mother was a Master Weaver in South Georgia for 50 years. 

I have not experienced everything but am open to new challenges constantly. I reside in King George Va and am known there as County Weaver. I have 57 years at the Art of Seat Weaving and Caning. 

"Just Raisin' Cane"

Countyweaver@gmail.com

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​Jennifer Cardwell

My name is Jennifer Cardwell and I am the sole owner of JC Caning, LLC in New Kent, VA. I am truly blessed in my career as the art of seat weaving provides me the opportunity to work independently from home.

 

I graduated from the Department of Communication Arts and Design at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1994, with a degree in graphic design and photography. I worked for many years managing design departments at trade show exhibit and museum exhibit companies. After we moved to a rural area, building a freelance clientele proved impossible. Blessedly, seat weaving was brought to my attention by a friend and I jumped right in. I am self taught learning from books, YouTube, and members of The Cane and Wicker Restoration Facebook group.

 

Confident in this business endeavor, I incorporated in May of 2017. A steady flow of work comes from local furniture repair and upholstery businesses. I designed my website, have been mentioned in local newspapers, 

and business has increased and I am running a continual waitlist that is staying around 12-18 months out.

 

I have been fortunate to have worked on some beautiful and expensive pieces; a Brumby rocker, a Thonet chair circa 1890, a pair of Hunter rockers, a pair of Ebert Wels Yugoslavian folding chairs, a S. Karen & Bros. chair from the late 1800s, a pair of Hans Wegner JH-501, a full set Klismos dining chairs by Baker, a Hitchcock sofa, a 1670’s King Charles II chase lounge, and a full restoration of a 1930’s porch swing.

 

Jen Cardwell, Treasurer, TSWG

jen@jccaning.com

www.jccaning.com​

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Lynn Phillips

 

Lynn is a former bookstore general manager now satisfying her personal creative passions through chair weaving as owner and operator of Hank’s Cane & Rush Restoration.  Predominantly self-taught, Lynn has mastered many of the weave patterns and knowledge of materials necessary to sustain a dying art form – cane and rush restoration. Lynn is a mother and grandmother dedicated to her family and friends.  It is her commitment to relationships and family traditions that fosters her desire to preserve generational memories; as Lynn likes to say “Every chair has a story to tell”.

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Wyndham Radcliff

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Alan Dean Warren
Spartanburg SC


Learned chair caning in high school. Learned corn shuck Seatweaving while attending Berea College in Kentucky. Graduated with BA Degree in Art/Design in 1975.
Juried Member of Southern Highland Craft Guild in Seatweaving with Natural Materials since 1974. Joined Kentucky Guild of Artists & Craftsmen during my college years. I continued doing chair caning and antique chair restoration as a hobby over the last 55 years. Now a Member of Seatweavers Guild (I just joined). From 2024 to the present, I operate an 1860’s Log Cabin furnished with period antiques (including many 1800’s period caned and oak splint bottom chairs) located in Western North Carolina as a short term rental property.


Presentation Plan

I plan to demonstrate how to make strands of corn shuck chair seat “cord” on an active children’s rocker chair frame project that has already been started. I’ll be continuing towards finishing the warp layer and then starting the weft layer as time allows during this demonstration period. I will be weaving a double diamond design that I learned from my Berea College training experience. (It takes approximately 40 hours to complete a small chair or stool. 60-80 hours for a larger chair.)

I plan to have an empty chair frame in case any attendees wish to try their hand, for a few minutes each, at making a corn shuck strand.

I will have two fully completed stools to show the final product.

I will be explaining the process and answering questions during this demonstration.

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Sue Muldoon

Sue owns Redux For You, She is a seatweaver, basketmaker, broom-maker , graphic designer, and webmaster. She is currently teaching up and down the East Coast. Author of "Weaving Step-by-Step" published in 2024

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