Tuesday 2 March 2010

Catchup time

We've had our heads down this last few days and finally it seems to be paying off. The backlog is not quite so bad now. Eight rush chairs, three cane chairs, two drop in rush pads and a Wegner Wishbone finished - great! My hands ache, but that's because the eight rush chairs were woven in very thick pre-twisted rush and even though we soaked and mellowed it overnight, it is still a lot harder to use than regular thickness.

We've also had some interesting conversations recently. Two on the same day were with professors, one in forensic science and the other in botany. The forensic scientist paid us a visit, (what on earth for - you may ask?!) well because rattan is being used experimentally in nano technology!! It's fascinating. When the research paper is written I have been promised a copy and hopefully I will understand more of the role that the rattan has played in the experiment, I'll keep you posted.

The second professor wanted information for an American colleague who is currently researching scirpus - it's areas of growth and commercial harvesting. We talked for ages about the work of Seidel in the 1950's-70's. Seidel was a remarkable lady who was way ahead of her time. Her research work is only now being fully appreciated. She was very determined and was eventually to discover and prove the amazing cleansing properties of scirpus to her mainly male colleagues. It turned out that the lady professor I was talking to had met this remarkable lady in the 70's and called her "an inspiration".

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