Silke Peukert is a restorer specializing in interior design / Master Professional. Together with her husband, Uwe Weis, she runs the workshop "Die Restauratorin / Missfilz & IndiBike" in Solingen. (Photo: © Leon Sinowenka, Solingen)
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Women in Crafts - Special Features
March 2026
Master Professional: Silke Peukert is the first interior decorator to achieve the highest qualification in the skilled trades in the field of historic preservation. The Art Nouveau chair she restored for her final project told many fascinating stories.
Anyone entering the furniture upholstery and workshop of restorer Silke Peukert in Solingen (North Rhine-Westphalia) quickly senses that this is about more than just new covers. It's about history and stories. About chairs, tables, and sofas that have survived decades and are now being brought back to life for future generations. And about motorcycles and cars: The interior designer shares the showroom with her husband, Uwe Weis , and his vehicle upholstery business, IndiBike . Hence the name " The Restorer / Missfilz & IndiBike".
Here, the 56-year-old also presents her certificate as a "Certified Restorer in Interior Design / Master Professional ." After two and a half years of training at the Raesfeld Castle Academy of Crafts, Silke Peukert became the first interior designer in Germany, along with three colleagues, to receive the new Master's title in July 2025. Her final project was a historic armchair from the depot of the private collection of chair enthusiast Werner Löffler . The Löffler Collection is one of the largest private collections of seating furniture in Europe. Her lecturer at the academy in Raesfeld established the connection.
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Master Professional: The Master Professional is the highest advanced training qualification in German crafts, comparable to an academic Master's degree. A key innovation of the Master Professional training program for restoration in the crafts is the close connection between academic research and practical application: Each participant must develop their own restoration concept and implement it on a specific object.
They found what they were looking for in the depot in Reichenschwand near Nuremberg: The Art Nouveau chair from the 1920s was in extremely poor condition – the design may have originated from the circle of the Vienna Secession or the Wiener Werkstätte . Perhaps even a design by the architect and designer Josef Hoffmann – although this could not be proven. The upholstery was completely torn. But: all the materials were demonstrably original to the building; the chair had never been reupholstered.
An ideal study object for the aspiring conservator. Her task for the next 24 months was to restore the chair to museum quality. This meant that the chair didn't have to be usable again, but rather become an exhibit for the Löffler Collection. "Traces of history must be preserved," explains Silke Peukert.
After completing her apprenticeship as an interior decorator in Düsseldorf, she initially studied interior design and graduated with a diploma in 1999. "We still drew by hand, with ink," she says. The then-emerging field of computer-aided design was never for her. "I couldn't imagine doing drawings on a computer in an office."
Even during her studies, she upholstered furniture during semester breaks and built up her own clientele. In 2009, she became self-employed in Solingen. Initially, she worked in the Güterhallen, a studio collective in a converted train station. It was there that she met her husband, who was working as a chef at the time. A serious illness forced him to give up his profession. Together, they developed a new career path: upholstery and saddlery.
Today, customers from all over Germany – but also from Norway, Sweden or Portugal – come to the "Missfilz & IndiBike" manufactory when it comes to individually manufactured motorcycle seats, ergonomically perfected, and high-quality interior fittings for classic cars.
The decisive impetus for her training as a restorer came from an article in the "Deutsches Handwerksblatt " (German Crafts Journal). It featured the exhibition "Obsessed" at the Grassi Museum of Applied Arts in Leipzig. The exhibition was curated by restorers in the crafts sector who also teach at the Raesfeld Castle Academy. The woman from Solingen researched, gathered information – and decided to pursue the two-and-a-half-year, part-time professional development program. She was not only part of this pilot cohort for the Master Professional program, which started in 2023: "I was also the first person to be examined in my trade at Raesfeld."
The chair she worked on throughout this entire period required detective work. First, she created a restoration plan. Then, the piece of furniture was carefully reupholstered, examined for possible pest infestation (mouse and pigeon droppings, etc.) while wearing a mask and gloves, and all materials were documented and archived down to the smallest detail.
Fabrics, filling materials, and even the nails were analyzed. Fire tests revealed fiber types – animal fibers in the velour, presumably silk, and plant fibers in the base fabric. Metal analysis showed whether it was hardened steel or later additions. Thread counters, microscopes, tweezers, and endoscope cameras were used. An important topic in the training is health risks and the proper handling of, for example, arsenic-containing mothproofing agents like Eulan, kapok fibers, or pest residues.
The small finds inside the chair were particularly exciting: "Between the back and seat cushions, I found chewing gum wrappers from the Czech brand Pedro , which I was able to date to 1968. I also found eleven coins from the 1950s and 1960s , a button, matchsticks, and pieces of wire ." Silke Peukert researched, photographed, labeled, and archived everything. From this, she was able to conclude that the chair had apparently been in the former Czechoslovakia for quite some time before it entered the collection.
During the careful, museum-quality restoration, all signs of wear remained visible. An earlier, presumably improvised, covering was simulated using a loosely attached cover – without making any new alterations to the wood.
She also analyzed the lacing of the springs in detail. "It didn't correspond to the classical technique we learned, which supported my suspicion that the piece of furniture might not have been made in the German-Austrian region." Perhaps a clue to Josef Hoffmann after all? That could never be definitively determined. Silke Peukert's training in drawing from her studies proved invaluable. She produced scale drawings of the chair, documented the material weights with color, and took precise measurements. "Drawing is a craft, too," she says.
Photography, building physics, building materials chemistry, pest control – all of this was part of the training in Raesfeld, which took place in block courses and exam phases held in person. During the first year in Raesfeld, trainees worked across trades with plasterers, stonemasons, painters, bricklayers, carpenters, joiners, and metalworkers . "We made valuable contacts here." The curriculum included topics such as historic preservation and monument protection, art and cultural history, and the fundamentals and methods of natural sciences.
The second part of the training was specialized. "Here we learned traditional craft techniques: specifically upholstery techniques using horsehair, hemp, flax, or long straw, but also how to handle historical window decorations and fabrics. Everything you need, for example, for working on castles or museums." More modern materials were also covered. "Even foam materials from the 1960s and 1970s can be worth restoring today."
Silke Peukert raises awareness among her private clients about the importance of preserving the value of their furniture. "I experience a particularly openness when it comes to Biedermeier furniture." She recently restored six chairs for a client from Berlin using horsehair and rebuilt a Biedermeier sofa with spring lacing in the seat and back. "A client also found his way to our workshop through a recommendation, bringing an Art Nouveau desk. It had a delicate frame, which I reupholstered on the back and writing surface with a period-typical fabric." Each of these projects includes more or less extensive documentation, depending on the client's requirements.
The question remains: Why does Silke Peukert name her business "Missfilz" (Miss Felt)? She explains that since her apprenticeship in the 90s, she has had a special connection to an artist who made felt world-famous: Joseph Beuys. "In my instructor's workshop, there was a photograph of a grand piano that Beuys had sewn into a felt covering – a work that is now in the Centre Pompidou in Paris." The covering of this piano had been renewed after a performance – by her boss at the time. This story, the encounters with Beuys' widow in the shop, and the photograph all profoundly influenced the apprentice.
Felt has become one of her favorite materials: she designed modular rugs, bags, and furniture cushions. She also exhibited her rug at a special design exhibition during the International Crafts Fair in Munich. All that remains of her advanced training is a centimeter-thick written master's thesis, numerous photos and drawings, and her diploma.
Her masterpiece – the chair from the 1920s – is back in Bavaria. Now, however, it is no longer in storage, but part of the collection.
Information about further training: The Certified Restorer in Craftsmanship / Master Professional for Restoration in Craftsmanship at the Academy of Crafts Schloss Raesfeld supplements classical training with competencies such as monument protection and preservation, materials science, architectural and furniture styles, documentation techniques, conservation techniques, and provenance research. Trades addressed include painters and varnishers, bricklayers and concrete workers, metalworkers, stonemasons and stone sculptors, interior decorators, plasterers, carpenters, and joiners.
The next course starts in mid-October 2026 and lasts approximately 24 months. The master craftsman's examination is a prerequisite for admission. Comparable professional qualifications can also be recognized upon application. More information here.
DHB now also available digitally! Simply click here and register for the digital German Crafts Journal (DHB)!
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