Warp Speed

If you have had the good fortune of sitting on a recent edition of the iconic Wishbone chair, designed by Hans J. Wegner in 1949, chances are pretty good that the geometrically patterned seat was crafted by Benny Hammer Larsen, a master weaver at Carl Hansen & Søn, the Danish company that has produced the chair since the day it came off the drawing board. Larsen, who specializes in weaving the seating and backrests for all of the Wegner designs that Carl Hansen & Søn manufactures, has such an abiding love for the Wishbone that he sports a tattoo of it on his left forearm. He can transform the 131 yards of paper cord required for its production into a finished chair in less than an hour (most of the company's 50 other weavers take up to 90 minutes).