Tangled web we weave

We just got in an order of cotton twill tape for weaving some new chair seats. The main seating material of the Shakers in the early half of the 19th Century was splint (strips of wood). By the time the Shakers were selling chairs via catalogues in the 1870s, splint was not even listed as an option. The most common seating material by that time had become "webbing" or tape. At first the tape was made of wool, but by the beginning of the 20th Century cotton became more common. We have tried ordering cotton tape from several sources. The first source had great tape but there was a large processing charge on each order making them cost prohibitive. We didn't like the tape from the 2nd, 3rd or 4th source for some reason or other. The real tricky part is if you find tape you like, how will it hold hope over time. I got a tip on this 5th source from a reliable insider in the shaker community so I am hoping that this tape will be of high quality for the long haul. It certainly seems so out of the box. It has a nice texture and high quality feel. Its important to us to give our clients a nice product so I am very excited about this new source which has over 200 colors. You can find samples in our Collections pages under Shaker Taping. We can't wait to show you what we do with what we just received. We guarantee it will be beautiful!