Rush Seating
Rush seating is made from the leaves of freshwater rushes, harvested, dried, dampened and then twisted into a continuous cord as the seat is woven. The weaver works around the four rails of the chair in a spiral, which produces the familiar pattern of four triangular panels meeting at the centre of the seat.
Because the cord is twisted from natural leaf rather than manufactured to a gauge, the colour and thickness vary along its length. A newly rushed seat is greenish and pale and darkens over several years to a warm gold-brown, so the age of a rush seat is generally readable at a glance.
The material is strong in tension and weak in point loading. A rush seat carries a sitting weight easily and gives way quickly under a knee or a chair leg, which is why old rush seats fail in the middle rather than at the rails, and why they were traditionally treated as a wearing part to be replaced.
Visually rush belongs with painted wood, with plain plaster and with any textile that has some irregularity in it. It sits awkwardly beside high-gloss finishes, which make it look like a repair rather than a choice.