I began my chair caning, wicker furniture repair and antler basket weaving career in 1975 with an infant son in tow.

My mother-in-law had both encouraged me and insisted that I learn how to weave a paper rush seat. She had done some chair caning in the past but didn’t want to teach herself how to do rush seat weaving.

So she bribed me by saying I could have a beautiful walnut drop-leaf dining room table in return for weaving the seat of an old mule-ear chair she had. Shortly, she brought over an instructional magazine article, the paper rush weaving materials, the chair frame and wished me luck! If you’d like to see pictures of that first rush seat just click on the hotlink here, Cathryn’s first paper rush chair seat.

Eventually, I started a home-based business weaving on a part-time basis so I could care for my young child and still make some pocket money that I could call my own.

My mother-in-law was right, I loved the antique chairs that I worked on and thanks to her have enjoyed years in the field of arts and crafts, with a special emphasis on wicker repair and chair seat weaving.

And then much later on in 2009, on the 10th anniversary of being in business, The Wicker Woman® received its registered trademark status!