Caning Shop — Local services in Berkeley

Super interesting place. Kind of difficult to find a shop to purchase caning stuff. This place evidently also repairs cane furniture, and has classes. Filled to ceiling (not s joke!) with great pieces of furniture.

I am redoing chairs myself and drove a couple of hours to try to decide on a pattern of pre-woven cane. The lady working was so nice, she gave me several free swatches to take home so I could be sure. Also she advised which materials would be easy for a beginner to use. Customer service is 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼.

Only drawback, very limited Saturday hours. I wish they were open all day since shop is closed on Sundays and Mondays. Don’t forget, there’s an online store if you make it during there hours of operation!

Store has the most beautiful small multi-colored woven baskets-so fine and detailed, wish I could...

Cute, eclectic store! Love love the setup. So many things to look at, learn and be inspired. They have many books on sale, they teach classes/workshops, and even fix any broken caning projects. Jim, the owner is absolutely amazing! He is so knowledgeable, so smart and very helpful. He is an inventory of sorts, and makes cool versions of different tools with twists of his own, often improving on the original idea of the tools!

I came by the caning store through a friend of mine, since Jim sells pysanky supplies here and I am a pysanky artist. Pysanky are Ukrainian Easter eggs. It's an art form where you decorate eggs using the batik technique. I, now sometimes, teach pysanky classes at the caning shop, with my friend who got me to this store. Jim is ever welcoming and a wonderful person to work with in...

The response I received after inquiring about classes and studio time with some chairs I am working on:

"After a brief conversation w Jim, we both agree these chairs are not suitable for restoration by beginners. These are “rush” seats and it might take you a month of Saturdays to learn how to restore them.

FYI, we’d likely charge you $600 each to install new seats on these chairs. It is highly skilled labor. You should find something else to cut your teeth on."

I was very surprised and disappointed to receive such a dismissive response when I am willing to put in time and money to learn a new skill, and they know nothing about me. I'm sure they are a skilled group of people, but for this reason I'll take my...