SHERMAN CHAIR CANING

All communication was through email and in writing. Although I frequently asked for a status, she was very slow, taking over a year to complete the total project. I had her start with the 2 side chairs. When I picked them up, the visible front of her caning was acceptable, but the underneath stitches were clumsy compared to the quality of the stitches in the original caning that still remained on the unrepaired chairs. She said she could not cane the rear side of the backs because the wood of the 2 side chairs was too weak to accept caning on both sides. I believed her and decided that she could recane the 2 armchairs. She had trouble finding the time to start the chairs, and when I contacted her for a status, she asked for a $1000 advance and said she found them tedious. I told her I wanted to pick them up rather than giving her an advance, but she quickly finished them instead. She did not recane the rear of the backs, stating she did not know how. I originally asked her to replace the one intact seat so that all 4 chairs would look the same, but when I picked the chairs up, one seat was significantly darker than the rest of her caning. I asked, and she said she recaned it before the others using older cane and that all 4 chairs would look the same in a few months. I wasn't sure I was right, so I paid her in full. I had another caner look at them and she told me that, as I suspected, the darker armchair seat had not been recaned--it was the original seat. When we turned the chairs over, Sandy's stitching on the underneath was much more clumsy than the stitching on the darker chair--easily seen in the pictures I took of all 4 chairs. The cost of recaning the one armchair seat was $212.50, and Sandy Sherman refused to reimburse me, saying she recaned it. The pictures clearly show she is not telling the truth, that someone with much more skill caned the dark seat of the arm chair many years ago.