Cardboard chairs and the rainy season....

As you'll see from the post on 'cardboard chairs' - we were feeling proud of the made-to-measure chairs, and the kids were excited to start using them - so we finished them with a coating of tough coloured paper, and left it at that.
ERROR!!!

A couple of weeks later the rainy season hit - and I hadn't been prepared for quite how damp it would be. Constant rainfall - day and night, for weeks on end. The air was heavy with moisture, clothes never quite dried out, everything felt damp.

Dampness + cardboard chairs = a bit of a problem

They went soft and soggy, and started to go mouldy.

So as soon as we had a few days break from the rain, they had to go out in the sun to thoroughly dry out, before we properly finished them with spray paint and a couple of coats of varnish. Not ideal in terms of toxic chemicals, but the treatments have proved absolutely necessary, and I haven't seen any forms of seating available that aren't either made from plastic or covered in varnish. 



Cô Sương demonstrating the chair she made for Hung.



It seems to have done the trick.

So if you're trying something similar, anywhere in the world - be smarter than me and think about the seasons your chairs might need to weather....

(We're now­­ playing about ­with polystyrene chairs, beanbags, packing boxes.... I'll update ­­­­­­with pictures soon.)