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beth swade

WHATS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRADITIONAL AND MODERN UPHOLSTERY??



KEY facts ABOUT TRADITIONAL HISTORY

  • Traditional furniture is usually pre 1920s

  • Usually filled with fibre, often horse hair, straw, sometimes seagrass (anything that was around really!!

  • The shapes of the furniture are then edge stitched to hold the fibre in place and give it shape- this is a labour intensive and skilled technique.

  • Traditionally furniture would be secured to the wood frame with tacks.

  • It was pre synthetic fibres so all the base layers and webbings are hessians, cottons and wools.


KEY DATES AND MODERN UPHOLSTERY FACTS

The industrial revolution (1750-1840) meant that traditional and slow crafts began to loose their appeal and mass production and the beginning of fast furniture begins to appear.


In the 1920s and 30s modern furniture designers began to play with plywood and early plastics and the development of Latex foam meant that new and different upholstery shapes where achievable that would not have been possible using traditional stitching and stuffing methods, this is the beginning of what is now termed 'modern'.


Polyurethane foam was patented in 1950s and became fully commercialised. It is problematic for a few reasons, it is virtually impossible to recycle, except shredding it and become chip foam. It will also disintegrate over time making it impossible to partly replace parts of the chair as is possible with stuffed and stitched upholstery techniques, although working with foam is considerably faster and therefore less labour extensive 


TIMESAVERS (this is really a summary of what makes a modern piece)

As mass production of furniture picks up speed, factory produced furniture really becomes huge business and making processes faster and more efficient is the main goal. This reduces the labour cost and essentially even now is why modern pieces are so much cheaper to make than traditional.


  • Moulded Furniture- plastic moulded furniture developed from late 50/60s would mean frames no longer needed to be hand crafted. 

  • Ply Grip- metal grip tape that can be stapled onto edges of furniture to close the finishing edges that previously would have been stitched by hand

  • Spray Glue- allowed upholsterers to join foam together quickly in the workshop. 

  • Springing systems- pre made sprung units allowed us to quickly drop in springs that would previously have been hand lashed. 

  • 1947 Fastener Corporation invented the world’s first pneumatic stapler. This would have increased speed in the workshop greatly. 

  • Nylon Twine- is quicker and easier to work with than linen twine that needs to be waxed so that it doesn't break when stitching. 

  • Foam profiles/ edge rolls- previously hand stitched profiles can be applied with foam or paper rolls to achieve a similar look. 


what about now??

Consumers are becoming more conscious and beginning to want to recover and re-make furniture that's been passed down and is important to them or lovers of certain designs that will hunt out an mid century designer they love. 


I think people are beginning to understand that the Ikea or mass produced pieces that they are buying are not good for the environment and that in the long run they won't last.  The trouble is that the initial cheap price tag is hard to walk away from!  And lots of modern furniture companies are integrating more natural materials into their ranges.


I would love to see how we can reintroduce natural fibres that were used in traditional upholstery in modern and new pieces, there are exciting materials like rubberised coir and hair that can be a substitute for foam and require less stitching than the pure fibre and therefore could make the labour cost less.


Away!! I would love to discuss any modern or traditional projects with you and if you would like to investigate how you could upholster a modern piece using more natural materials inspired by traditional technique's then give me a shout !!



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