Early in January I spent four days at West Dean College just north of Chichester learning about chair seating.  My tutor was the wonderful Mary Butcher.  The college itself was beautiful and I had a really restful time although the days were long.

I re rushed this stool that my father made at school when he was about 14 years old, so around 1952.  It was a really lovely thing to do.  I could still make out all the individual marks of the chisel as I wound the rush around the top rail.  Last week I discovered that my father-in-law had made one identical at the same time. Oh how the national curriculum has changed!

I used dutch rush as it tends to be more even than English rush. This helps to keep a regular sized bundle as you work.

I also started caning a rather lovely chair, it’s a work in progress though so will post a photo of that at a later date.