The beauty and appeal natural materials bring to complete a neutral look is irreplaceable. Rattan chairs and other woven furniture bring an air of relaxation into every room they’re placed in. And they’re not just for beachside resorts anymore. International hotels, F&B establishments and even boutique-styled homes are slowly adopting their chic look.

We’ve been producing them ourselves at onestop and have witnessed its surging popularity from the start. In this article, we’ll share the pros and cons of different weaving techniques so you’ll know what to look out for when you’re shopping for your concepts!

CANING – VERSATILE & STRONG

Caning is the most well-known weaving technique you’ll see around. There are a variety of methods from machine weaves to hand caning, fancy caning, and blind caning. Although it is a weaving technique that can be adapted to suit other designs, caning is mostly done in the traditional hole-to-hole designs.

This design has proven itself to be of durable construction and is frequently used for chair seats and backing. Individual strands of cane are woven together in 7 steps with each strand going through holes that are drilled in the perimeter of the frame, resulting in the familiar octagon pattern. Weaving this beautifully intricate pattern takes time and plenty of skill, but creates a strong and durable pattern when completed.

RUSH – TOUGH & METICULOUS

As far as weaving techniques go, rush is one of the more expensive options, making it quite uncommon. This is due to its technical difficulty, extensive crafting time, and availability of materials. It uses either natural leaf rush, bulrush, or man-made paper fibre rush and is typically woven around four seat rungs or dowels, forming the 4 distinct triangles in the seat pattern.

Hand-twisted natural rush is an old technique often seen on antique chairs or footstools, while pre-twisted rush, or reel rush, has emerged as a more popular method in recent times—being less costly to produce and repair. Compared to the other two, paper fibre rush is considered to be longer-lasting as it’s woven in a continuous strand, lasting 50 years or more with the right care. You’ll be able to find paper fibre rush in colonial style or rail modern chair seats.

SPLINT – CLEAN & BALANCED

Sometimes referred to as ‘splits’, splints are prepared strips of ash, oak, rattan reed or hickory bark. The resulting aesthetic makes for a cleaner look than the others and matches a modern interior concept fairly well.

Typically woven around the seat rungs or dowels of chairs, rockers and settees, the pattern is usually woven in either a 3×3 or 4×4 herringbone twill, or basketweave design.

PICK YOUR PATTERN

The natural aesthetic of woven furniture remains to be one of its strongest assets, easily fitting into most modern design concepts. There are many more types of weaving coupled with different techniques and technology to explore. At onestop, we mainly use synthetic weaving as it has outstanding durability for our commercial projects. We also use customised tools to complement the traditional techniques such as using a soldering iron to melt and bond synthetic materials instead of securing them with another piece of fibre. Make use of our specialised expertise for your projects! Simply contact us here for more information on our weaving techniques and available materials.

18 March 2021