SUTTON, Vt. (WCAX) - It’s the start of a 10-hour project restoring the seat of an antique rocking chair. Melanie Miller Hansen carefully weaves a new rattan seat piece by piece.
“I think it’s the accomplishment of seeing an old piece restored and the fact that when you talk to the customers, a lot of their pieces have meaning,” Miller Hansen said. “Any of the caners out there will say it’s relaxing, it’s therapeutic and it’s a wonderful art to do. And it’s an old art.” Garden Furniture Table
Miller Hansen owns Melanie’s Woven Memories, and as the name alludes to, caning is a nostalgic craft for this Sutton woman.
“My father restored furniture and cane chairs, and he taught me how to do that as a child,” she said. “Everything that I learned, the weaving, is from my dad. It’s part of him.”
Miller Hansen opened up Melanie’s Woven Memories in 1993 after her father passed. It was a way to honor his craft, and also, how this then-single mom made ends meet.
“I raised two children and worked during the day and did this at night,” she said.
Now married, Miller Hansen builds her own furniture, as well, particularly rush benches and stools. Though she says most of her work these days is furniture restoration, offering a variety of weaves for seats and seat backs to bring chairs back to their original splendor, typically, for the original owner to enjoy.
“I love that, I mean I love being able to say, ‘Oh, yeah, I fixed that up and it didn’t go anywhere else other than back into the home where it came from,’” Miller Hansen said.
But she is a woman of many talents. While caning is her bread and butter, she weaves baskets in her spare time, too. The sizes, colors and designs all vary.
You can find her work on Facebook or twice a week at the St. Johnsbury and Danville Farmers Markets, and you can see her in action.
“I take these to the farmers market, I do my caning at the farmers market and many shows, I demonstrate,” Miller Hansen said.
Be it a basket, a bench or a restored rocking chair, Melanie’s Woven Memories can only be found in Vermont.
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