Empathically repairing chairs

• • Silke likes to work when it rains at the open window
• • Chair caning has allowed her to combine family life with her craft
• • She feels chosen by her craft

As a child, Silke Schlittermann used carpentry to compensate for the goods she missed growing up in the GDR. She was enthusiastically supported in this by her father, an engineer. Apprenticeships for carpenters were extremely scarce in East Germany at that time. As a result, Silke began her career as a metalworker before becoming a carpenter after the reunification. Chair caning was introduced to her by pure accident. Upon arriving in England for a one-year carpentry training programme, she discovered the company that had hired her was bankrupt. Her only option was to go home or to find something new. Chair caning was the only other craft workshop available in the small English town where she found herself. "With cake, I persuaded the owner to hire me," she remembers. That year, she not only became a lifelong close friend with the owner, but also learned a new craft that enabled her to realise her dream of being a craftswoman with a large family.