A rare opportunity to formally study the craft of Chair Caning & Seat Weaving…EXTENDED THROUGH 2021!

Help us get a snapshot of the craft of chair weaving in the 21st century. The survey is open to hobbyists, professionals, students, and anyone who has woven a chair! While we are specifically looking for numbers of Chair Caners in the US, we also want to hear from those of you around the world.

Take the Survey

Download the Media Kit

Is chair weaving thriving, stable, or disappearing?

This survey has been extended to December 31, 2021 due to the pandemic shake-up.

Thanks to the 200 chair caners who responded in 2020.

The data collected will

  • establish a baseline for future craft research
  • feature video interviews of chair caners
  • be published in a report to share with craft organizations, guilds, and other associates (we will not share your personal info!)
  • be featured in an exhibit at Silver River Chairs

Instructions

The survey can be as quick as 10 minutes if you only answer through Part 1, but we encourage you to take your time and help us with this rare opportunity for official research on chair weaving by continuing through to Part 3.

The survey is divided into 3 parts.

  1. Basic questions about your chair weaving experience
  2. Specific questions about your chair weaving practice/materials/types of chairs.
  3. A nerdy questionaire about your passions, time and money spent, specific projects (dream jobs and chairs from hell)

Thanks for helping us with this important research! Click the button at the top to take the survey.

Help fund our research

[wpep_form]

Budget

An official budget is in progress and will be posted soon!) This research project has cost $750 to date in promotional materials, postage, paid assistance to design the study, and the jotform account. It has taken 100+ unpaid hours. We anticipate it costing at least three times this amount. We would like to purchase a proper microphone and recorder for interviews, we will spend hundreds of hours editing these interviews. We will spend hundreds of hours promoting, mailing, collating the data, and publishing the results. We will apply for grants, but lots of grants are “matching” grants, so if we have $1000, we get $1000.

Any amount donated is helpful. $5, $10, $15, $20? Thanks for your support of this research project! Please include your name/email as a “note” so that we can thank you properly. Any donation of $50 will receive a free bookmark, two postcards, and a chair nerd sticker. Any donation of $100 will receive a free Chair Nerd or Chair Minion t-shirt.  A donation of $250 will receive a free chair nerd t-shirt and $100 credit toward a chair caning class or restoration.

  • Post about the survey in your social media site (we will send copy and images)
  • Request Census postcards to distribute in your shop or to your students.
  • Spread the word! Here is the link: https://form.jotform.com/93378905999179
  • Add the census as a page on your website or as a link on your website
  • Post about the census in your newsletter (we will send you copy and images)
  • Add a featured post about the census to your social media site for a month
  • Help us brainstorm various craft organizations or guilds in your region to send postcards for distribution
  • Help us brainstorm historical resources or other research we aren’t aware of
  • Participate in a video interview at The SeatWeavers’ Guild Gathering July 24-26
  • Collect images from magazines with woven furniture or cane patterns. Mail them to us at the end of the year.
  • Send us articles about you and your chair caning business