When is a dying art not a dying art? When two craftsmen adopt the ancient ways, start a museum to preserve them and open a school to teach the ancient ways to others. Welcome to Silver River Center for Chair Caning in Asheville, North Carolina.
Dave Klingler and Brandy Clements founded this institution, which is America’s only chair caning school and museum. Their mission is to prove that this is not a dying art all. While chairs with caned backs and seats were once thought of as something your grandmother would love, today they have made a comeback. There are people out there who are historic preservationists at heart who simply prefer the antique look to the current trend of the ultra-modern, where every item is clean, slick and right-angled. There are also modern takes on woven patterns for everyone to love. Like mid-century modern? There’s a pattern for that!
On a recent visit to their workshop, I asked Dave how someone his age (i.e. young) gets involved in such old restoration techniques. He said that Brandy’s family has been “caning for generations” but he came to it a bit later in life. After college he was searching for the right path for himself and he met Brandy. Today, in an open workshop, surrounded by beautiful specimens of chair art, they teach at least half a dozen techniques to anyone who wants to learn.
Customers who want chairs in their possession restored and repaired can bring them here and the experts will fix them up. Though, Dave admits that their schedule is heavily booked right now. Furniture owners can also sign up to learn how to do it themselves. On the day that I visited the studio, Dave worked on one project while Brandy simultaneously worked on her own project and tutored a student who was using his own chair as a guinea pig. It was a lovely scene. Both the student and teacher worked in silence. Every few minutes, one of them would step back, assess, cock their head to one side and continue on. I admit that I have not tried it, but I could see that it might be meditative work.
The former factory building is also a museum showcasing dozens of styles, patterns, materials and colors from decades past. Admittedly, I don’t know much about furniture as art. When I heard the term “cane-backed chair” I thought of a dark walnut chair with a beige back and seat where the pattern is created with thin strips of beige “stuff.”
It is true that those chairs exist, but I also learned about what a massive amount of dried corn husks a person would need to collect just to make one chair seat. I got to see the corn husks in their “natural state” and then in their “artful state.” Who knew? My mind never conceived of more unique furniture with black, white or gray materials.
Check out this unique specimen that resembles an elegant man’s haute couture sweater from the Paris runways (at least that’s what I think of).
As someone who dedicated her life for the past 12 years to preserving the structure and the stories of a 100-year old building in my hometown, the quote on the wall of the Silver River Center for Chair Caning stunned me. It also made me smile because I thought, “Yes! These people and I get each other!”
In this throwaway culture of built-in obsolescence, where every item we buy is made overseas, falls apart in three years or less and gets replaced with something equally chintzy, here is another path. This path allows for the artistic techniques to be passed on and the stories too. The traditions of history are made new again and passed hand-to-hand and chair-to-chair.
What unique traditions have you learned about while traveling? Share with us in the comments.
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