In everyday life, chairs provide a place to rest. But for Joyce Rosepiler of Industry, chairs provide a chance to work, a chance to preserve both handwork and history.

As a professional chair caner, Rosepiler spends her days creating and repairing woven seats, usually on antique chairs.

She will demonstrate her craft this weekend at the 55th General Federation Women's Club Intermediate League of Butler's annual antique show and sale. The event will be held at the Tanglewood Senior Center in Lyndora.

In addition to Rosepiler's demonstrations, the event will feature more than 40 antique dealers from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Delaware.

Royal Doulton, Flow Blue, Early American Glass, Heisey Glass, Haviland and Limage collectibles as well as clocks, toys and furniture will be some of the treasures on hand.

As has been the tradition of the show, a $100 cash door prize will be awarded Sunday. This year's quilt raffle, also on Sunday, will feature a queen-size Amish quilt in the Lone Star design in shades of navy and burgundy. Winners need not be present to win.

Proceeds from the sale will be given to local groups and charities.

Rosepiler will represent her business, Furniture Restoration.

"We restore antiques and repair furniture. But I specialize in chair caning, or seat weaving, and I also do some wicker repair," she said. "People can't understand why I would want to cane, but the caning relaxes me," she said.

Not only is it therapeutic for Rosepiler, but it is also rewarding.

"I have had the opportunity to meet wonderful people and be able to restore their heirlooms to rock that new grandchild or be able to use granddad's desk again," she said.

Rosepiler said she doesn't think altering an antique always decreases its value.

"In my opinion, unless you have a museum piece that you can prove has the original seat, it does not take away from the value of an antique if you put a new seat on the chair," she said. "If you plan to use the chair as a functional piece of furniture and it has a broken seat, what good is the chair?"

Depending on the condition of the materials, Rosepiler said restoration may only include a patch."If you have a few strands of hand cane that are torn, they can be patched. But if there are a few torn strands, that probably means that the seat is already dried out, and other strands are not long behind," she said.Rosepiler has been caning for 10 years, when she quit her day job to start her own business. She and her husband had been collecting antiques for several years. Many of them were chairs that needed to be recaned."I had no clue as to how to do this, but knew that some day I wanted to learn. I found a woman who caned chairs and also owned an antique shop in the town next to mine. She agreed to teach me to cane for the price of what she would charge to do the chair plus the material," said Rosepiler.While working on the chair at the shop, a businessman from Cleveland came into the shop to use the phone."He fell in love with the chair I was working on. I told him that I had a mate to the chair. He asked what I wanted for the pair," she said.Not knowing much about antiques, Rosepiler sought the advice of her teacher. "I ended up selling the finished pair for $100 apiece. This started the whole ball rolling," she said.Rosepiler bought books on caning and the proper tools and was hired as a cashier at the antique shop, where she learned more."I took a class on the splint technique at our local community college, and my husband and I taught ourselves how to rush from books," she said. Rushing is a technique in which cattails are twisted to form short lengths of rope."We had done our own refinishing of antiques and he is a carpenter, so I used his workshop and learned more about refinishing furniture," Rosepiler said. "I started taking in all kinds of furniture, not just chairs. Instead of asking for clothes and jewelry for Christmas, I asked for a profile sander," she added.When Rosepiler has time she has been known to take on students and share her knowledge of the craft."I taught one person to rush a chair because she wanted to do the other three of her chairs on her own. I taught her the same way that my teacher taught me for the same price to rush the chair plus material," Rosepiler said.One of Rosepiler's most challenging caning jobs came in the form of a tea cart with a pull-down door. "The door had a caned front that needed replaced. The challenge was that in the center of the cane was a wooden medallion that was suspended by the cane."The old cane was so badly damaged that I couldn't use it as a guide," explained Rosepiler.Despite her protests about the possibility of restoration, the couple insisted on leaving the piece and begged her to try. Rosepiler got out her caning books and was elated to discover instructions for caning a hanging medallion.After following everything the author said to do, she took the project into her hands and sat for two days with tracing paper, rulers and lots of erasers."I used my math skills from the days when I was a draftsman," she said. "Suddenly this job became personal. I was going to prove that I could do it and it was going to be correct."Symmetry is crucial to the craft."It was like was putting a spider (the medallion) in the middle of this perfect web. It took me two straight weeks to accomplish this feat," she said.The couple later confessed they left the tea cart with Rosepiler because they figured that she would eventually figure it out."Their strategy worked. I love a challenge," she added.Caring for cane chairs requires some maintenance and protection.Rosepiler admonishes, "If you want longer life for hand cane and pressed cane chairs, lightly dampen them at least two times a year. This keeps them from drying out and sagging."She also advises that cane chairs be kept away from hot-air returns and direct sunlight. Stained and painted seats do not last as long as the natural seat. She does not recommend staining or painting the cane unless it must match other chairs in the set.In the spirit of preservation, a portion of this year's proceeds will be donated to the Butler Historical Society."The air-conditioning at the Lowrie-Shaw House is in need of repair. The extreme fluctuations in temperature and humidity expedite the deterioration of artifacts," said Rebecca Crum-Reinsel, executive director of the historical society."The high temperatures and humidity levels in the summer can destroy the original artifacts from the Sullivan and Shaw families who once occupied the home. We are grateful for the league's consideration of our request," she added.Last year's show raised more than $6,000. Recipients of that money included Meals on Wheels, American Red Cross, The Associated Artists of Butler County's Art Center, YWCA, Society of St. Vincent DePaul, Lifesteps and the historical society.