Laurie Blake
Specialty Weaver, Caning Calgary
As a second generation specialty weaver I have been weaving chairs since 1986. My mother who was a rehabilitation teacher for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) used to hand cane chairs for vacation money. One day she asked for my help weaving a chair which as a teenager I happily did for a small fee. I really enjoyed weaving the chair and thought I could learn the craft and make a bit of spending money. Back in those days we didn't have websites, e-mail and the good old internet so I made up an informational flyer, photocopied it at the local library, put on a business suit and took the city transit to all the refinishing shops in Calgary, Alberta to introduce my weaving business Caning Calgary. Many of the refinishing shops in Calgary took me under their wings giving me a shot.
As we didn't have digital cameras or the internet when a was asked to weave a style of chair I hadn't seen before I would take it apart backwards and make detailed notes so I could provide a quality finished piece.
Quality workmanship, at a fair price, in a timely manner. That's what I do, with a skip in my step and a smile on my face.
My husband David and I are going to be living in our RV full time starting in September 2019. Once we hit the road we will be providing our specialty weaving services to clients local to the area we are exploring.
Our current plan is to spend October 2019 to April 2020 in the Vancouver area and May 2020 to October 2020 in Nova Scotia and then return to the Island and hang around Victoria November 2020 to April 2021 or maybe return to the Vancouver area.
We have started to chat about trying to spend about six weeks in the Kelowna, BC area after the September 2019 long weekend until we head to the Vancouver area if we finish closing up our house and find a family to rent it. Fingers crossed as I would love to spend some time exploring this beautiful area and dehydrating some fruit and vegetables for the winter sourced from local framers.
We may stop off somewhere in Saskatchewan on our way from British Columbia to Nova Scotia.
If you require our services in the province of Alberta or would need to ship chair seats and backs to us for repair please note you will need to do this leaving enough time for the weaving to be completed before we hit the road and become "The Blake's Caning Canada".
