Twisted Seagrass Cord, 1 lb Coil, Sizes #0 to #3

Seagrass is a natural grass twisted into a firm cord. It weaves into a seat with a slightly irregular, handmade texture, and its color starts green-to-wheat and mellows with light into a softer, warmer tone. Each coil is a full pound.

It works for:

• Chair seats and stool tops in the rush pattern, wrapped around four rails from the corners toward the middle
• Simple over-under and checkerboard tops on stools and benches
• Baskets, mats and coiled work
• Wrapping handles, lamp bases and frames

Seagrass is woven dry, straight from the coil, with no soaking. Pull each wrap snug and keep it there; a loose wrap shows in the finished seat. Pack the rows together as you go with a flat stick or your fingers so no wood shows between them.

To join a new length, tie it to the old one with a square knot and place the knot where it will be hidden: inside the seat between the top and bottom layers, or under a rail. On a rush-pattern seat, the first length is usually tacked to the inside of a side rail.

As a natural fiber, seagrass varies a little in thickness along the cord and in color from coil to coil. Order everything for one seat, or one set of chairs, at the same time. It is made for indoor furniture, so keep seagrass seats out of rain and constant damp.

The size number is the thickness: #0 is about 2.25 to 2.75 mm, #1 is 3 to 3.5 mm, #2 is 3.5 to 4 mm and #3 is 4.5 to 5 mm. Thicker cord fills a seat with fewer wraps and gives a bolder, more rustic look. Thinner cord gives a finer pattern and more feet per pound, and suits baskets and small pieces. To match an old seat, measure a strand with calipers, or count the wraps in one inch along a rail and divide 25.4 by that number to get mm.

For a full chair seat, plan on at least two coils of the same size; a larger seat, around 14 x 16 in, can take three. It is better to have cord left over than to run short with the last triangle still to fill.