DREAM WEAVER

Rachael South’s studio, tucked away in a side street of Dalston, east London, is like a mini museum to cane, cord and rush seating. Stacked on shelves, hanging from wall hooks or jostling for floor space, the chairs in a multitude of styles, designs and states of repair, represent the embodiment over the centuries of this varied craft. Victorian nursing seats with strands springing free from their frame; Thonet bentwood café chairs, the gentle criss-cross seat pattern interrupted by holes; to flamboyant rococo pieces or mid-century Danish paper cord designs.

With an audio book chattering away in the background, from