Cane Weaving

Being an intricate craft, cane weaving is both time and labour intensive. Depending on the complexity of the pattern, it can take our artisans anywhere between one and three days to finish weaving a single piece of our furniture.

Cane weaving by hand is an integral part of our furniture. We do not use machine made cane or pre-woven cane; all our cane weaving is done 'on the wooden frame' by a skilled weaver. Our weavers are adept at weaving different types of patterns - diamond, cross or the unique Tangāli weave.

Our weavers hail from traditional weaving communities of Karaikudi (a town in the Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu), from Bangalore, and from Chennai. They bring decades of weaving experience and generational knowledge of the craft and material to our production process.

We source our cane from the north eastern part of India. Cane is obtained by peeling flat strips from the outer edges of rattan reeds. Cane is a resilient natural material and our handcrafted cane seats and backs can last for several years without sagging if they are used with a little bit of care.

Cane strands are stripped to the required thickness of 3 mm or 4 mm using a simple contraption. A specialist cane peeler works in conjunction with 3 or 4 weavers to continuously supply them with strands.

The wrap-around weave and double strand pattern of the Tangāli Collection is handled by our more experienced master weavers.

Peeled cane strands are soaked in water to make them more pliant for weaving.

The cross cane weave seen in this image is an alternative to the more traditional diamond weave.

The Tangāli Modular Chair is one of the most difficult chairs to weave due to its curved contours and unique weave pattern.

Nils Sveje of INODA+SVEJE, examining the weaving details of the Tangāli Day Bed prototype, part of the second collection of furniture the duo created in collaboration with Phantom Hands.