A LOST ART FOUND!!!  SM

A SEAT WEAVERS JOURNEY
By Ronnie P. Goff

     33 years ago I received an Award of Complection
from a community college for 1.0 Continuing Education
Unit for Chair Caning which was the very, very humble
beginnings of Country Seat Weavers as clients know
it today from around the State of Virginia!!!
     Little did I know, & realize how extremely important
it was for me to take that Chair Caning Class!!!

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     *Certificates in the following:
          *Carpentry
          *Furniture Refinishing
          *Stained Glass

     Teaching adult education for the following:
          Chesterfield County (Virginia) Public Schools
          Adult Education
          Chair Caning (Lock Step Method TM)
made me realize how much easier it was for the instructor
to teach Chair Caning Lock Step Method TM to the Adult 
Education Students than the Traditional 7 Step Method
of Chair Caning!!!
     It (Chair Caning Lock Step Method TM) became an
absolute no brainer, & I have been using it ever sense!!!
     I was originally taught the Traditional 7 Step Method of
Chair Caning!!!  What a real bummer!!!Frown

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     LEARNING FROM THE MENTALLY,
     & PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED!!!Smile


     Of all of the life changing experiences I have had with 
with my Master Chair Caning etc. Knowledge is mentoring
(PRO BONO)  the mentally, & physically challenged, (NOT
HANDICAPPED) & will do so for the rest of my life!!!
    
When you begin mentoring the mentally, & physically
challenged little do you comprehend, & realize that you,
yes you are going to become a very, very special student!!!
     You are going to be taught life's lessons from a completely
different book which you have never opened, seen, or read!!!

     It will be an extremely challenged read full of sur-
prises which will absolutrly amaze, & spell bound
you!!!
     You will experience all of the completely raw un-
scripted emotions from your very first day at work
on the J O B!!!

     And the completely raw, unscripted emotions will run
from that first greeting with aprehension in their voices with
a smile on their faces, to a frown, to absolute frustration,
& more, & a chorus of I cannot do this to complete joy, &
laughter when they finish running Step #1 on a Hand Caned
Chair!!!
     I had a friend named Henry whom was a chronic complainer
so I thought I would take him along the next time I went to see
Dick to watch Dick Hand Cane A Chair!!!
     Dick was completely blind!!!  At the ripe age of 54 Dick went
to bed with his complete normal vision, & awoke completely
100% blind the next morning when he awoke!!!  I cannot comprehend
or imagine what my reaction to an event of this magnitude would be!!!
     On that particular day Dick was doing a Lincoln Rocker which
had been coverted from Hand Cane to Machine Cane!!!
     What I (we) witnessed that day I will remember to my dying day!!!
It forever changed Henry's disposition as a chronic complainer!!!
     I had been nudged (more than gently) years ago that they didn't
want my help, & didn't need my help!!!
     The tools Dick used to do this particular Machine Cane job I
had never seen anyone use before doing a Machine Cane job!!!
Dick had removed the spline, & now he was getting ready to re-
install the Machine Cane in the back of that Lincoln Rocker!!!
     Dick had a hammer, four (4) nails, and a uniquely modified
yardstick the likes of which I had never seen!!!
     This was indeed getting very interesting!!!
     Dick took that creative, notched yardstick, & began measuring
the back of that Lincoln Rocker horizontally, & then vertically,
then drove the four nails in their appropriate places, and then he
hung that machine cane on those four nails, & proceeded to install
that machine cane into that Lincoln Rocker!!!  It was absolutely striaght 
in both directions as well as taunt in both directions as if a sighted
professional Chair Caner had installed that machine cane job!!!
     Needless to say, I was left absolutely speechless, & then some!!!
     And so was my friend Henry!!!
     Now, back to my friend Henry!!!  I never, ever heard him complain
about anything again in my presence!!!
     To be continued!

     My clients have included the following:
          *The Woodworking Times
          *Williamsburg Foundation
          *Museum of the Confederacy
          *Edgar Allen Poe Museum
          *Congressman Bliley
     Note:  Courtesy Quimby's Antiques Restored

     Local Museums: 
          Greater Richmond, Virginia Area

     Associations:
          Kitty Gordon, President
          Northern Virginia Antique Dealers Association

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