Launched in 2025, we established the Rush Project with the aim of championing and reimagining the heritage craft of rush weaving. Rooted in centuries of tradition in the East Midlands and across Britain, rush as material is now finding new life in furniture making, restoration, and contemporary design. Our mission is to support its creative potential and ensure its skills thrive for future generations.

Rush once lined church aisles, softened stone floors, and was woven into baskets, mats, and chairs. Always gathered close at hand, it was a material of both necessity and beauty — humble, renewable, and endlessly useful. From these roots grew a craft that still endures today in the distinctive rush seating found on chairs across Europe.

We work with Schoenoplectus lacustris — the common club rush. Tall and supple, it grows in abundance along British waterways and has been prized for generations. Ours is harvested by hand from the River Ise in Northamptonshire, less than a mile from our workshop, keeping our work grounded in the landscape that sustains it. Alongside this, we are cultivating our own rush beds on site — supporting new growth to secure our future supply and revive a once-thriving local industry that played an important role here centuries ago.

We believe that rush is highly versatile. Its natural colouring and texture complement any period of furniture or furnishing, making it equally at home alongside antiques or in ultra-modern interiors.