Joy Gurevitz

     "For over thirty years, I have had an interest in the art of chair caning or seat weaving. It all started when I was a newlywed. How, one might ask, are the two connected? Like most newlyweds, we were long on love, but short on money and therefore, furniture, for our very sparsely furnished apartment. However, I discovered a huge old building in Rockville, Connecticut filled with used furniture and antiques. I found a delicate oak pressed-back chair with holes going around the frame of the seat. I was raised with cane and splint seated furniture, so I knew it was a hole-caned chair. Having just read about a class being offered in hole caning in the area, I bought the chair (for $2.00) and enrolled in the class. After I finished that chair (which I still have with its original seat), I then bought a rocking chair for my sister that required a new back and seat. This pretty maple rocker had rails that had to be woven around. I found a booklet on how to replace seats and wove a binder cane seat and back on the chair. She, too, has the rocker today with its original seat. Don't tell my husband, but that's how a second love affair began.
     In 1980, my husband, Mark, and I moved back to Loudoun County where I grew up. With a degree in Social Work/Sociology from Western Maryland College in Westminster, Md., I pursued a job as a paralegal for the elderly with Legal Services of Northern Virginia in Leesburg. Two children came along (Jessica and Nathan), various part-time jobs and activities and the years went into fast forward. Over the following years, I would occasionally buy a piece of furniture that required some sort of seat replacement. I would then read books on the subject and practice. I guess you could say that after that first class in hole caning, I taught myself the other types of seat weaving techniques.
     Almost 10 years ago, a desire to re-connect the dots, or holes (so to speak), between my interests, talents, and needs led me to do some self-searching and the result was to re-kindle my interest in caning and the restoration of furniture. The final result was to start my own home-based re-caning business. I now operate the business out of a shop in my home in Lovettsville.
     

Nathan