New dining chairs for Hellens Manor

The Ross-on-Wye Society has long had volunteering associations with Hellens Manor, in Much Marcle, Herefordshire.

Having finished the very successful Crewel work curtains for the Music Room, it was decided that they would like us to replace the old mock leather covers on the dining chairs in the White Dining Room. They should be replaced with needle work covers to complement the style of the room.

Sally Ziesler who has lead the group of volunteers at Hellens over the years, teaching, advising and designing works, was asked to produce a design for a canvas work, tent stitch cover for the ten dining chairs. She based the design on a book in the house, “The English Herbal or History of Plants” by William Salman using some of the illustrations and choosing her colours from those in the fabrics used in portraits hung in the room, and of course the colours in the carpet which the chairs would be seen against. Using the chosen colours, each volunteer chose the way the outline was to be filled, so that although the outline of the herb is the same the filling is individual. The background and the way the whole is divided is the same in all the chairs. The ten chairs were not a set, so the design had to accommodate a flat front, a bow front and arms for the two carvers.

In 2012 the volunteers, joined by some from Malvern started work on the canvases attached to frames made especially for us by one of the Hellens team. Some of us had not done much canvas work before so there had to be study sessions before we were allowed near the canvases.
After five years, 103,808 stitches, design tweaks, and volunteers moving on, we had a grand launch party for the new look White Dining Room in April.  The seats have been much admired by the visitors to Hellens last summer season.