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The majority of rush seats are either natural cattail leaf rush, bulrush or man-made paper fibre rush. Most older chairs or fine pieces are woven with bulrush or cattail leaves for authenticity. Natural rush weaving is time-consuming and the materials are expensive, but worth it if the chair is valuable. Paper rush is more reasonable and is used in many newer chairs.
I provide services to replace either variety of rush material. To obtain an estimate for your chair, send me a picture (if possible) with the seat measurements.
Fiber rush comes in a number of varities of color and guage, however most chairs have standard brown or golden rush. I stock both kinds in several different guages. It's easy to determine what you have once I see your chair.
This chair was restored prior to replacing the rush seat.
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Natural rush is not as common as fiber rush these days. It's beauty is hard to match, however. Because it is only harvested during certain times of the year and hand twisted, the material costs are more than fiber rush. It is also much more labor intensive. You can expect a natural rush replacement to cost about twice that of fiber rush. I usually need a good amount of time to complete a natural rush job, but it is worth the wait.
Like any other chair repair or caning service, rush seat chairs will receive a full inspection and cleaning when they're here. If joint repairs are needed, I will complete those before rush weaving begins to ensure a stable chair all the way around.