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Washington Evening Journal
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Washington, IA 52353
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Homestead museum highlights colony creativity
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
HOMESTEAD — A former general store and railroad stop in the Amana Colonies has opened as a folk art museum in Homestead.
Woolen goods, farm goods, all of the things the German settlers in the Amanas needed, were shipped into and out of Homestead, said Molly Kephart during an open house at the Homestead Folk Art Museum Saturday.
Residents of the Amanas brought their sauerkraut, eggs, onions — anything they made or harvested — to the store to ship out, Kephart said.
Not only did the Amana Colonies residents shop at the general store, farmers from the surrounding area also found goods there. And many of the goods, while functional, showed a creativity that the Amana Heritage Society wanted to reveal to the public.
For years the building had been leased from the Amana Heritage Society by the Die Heimat, a bed-and-breakfast next door. The owners, Marc and June Herschberger, wanted to retire, and the Amana Heritage Society wanted a place to highlight Amana folk art in depth.
Jon Childers, executive director of the Amana Historical Society, said Saturday that he’d been talking to curator Rebecca Simpson about highlighting the artistry of the handcrafts in the Amana Colonies.
The Amana Arts Guild already displays the works of Amana artists, said Childers, but it doesn’t have room in its small building in Amana to display all of the items that the large general store in Homestead can.
Rugs, paintings, furniture, traditional German pyramids and miniatures of Amana’s buildings are among the items visitors can see at the new museum.
On the second floor, larger items, including an old loom, are displayed.
Ramona Gerard, of Amana, sat with her needles and threads in front of a large antique wagon and demonstrated the lost art of tatting.
Gerard has been tatting for about 10 years. “I went to a class to learn how,” she said. “It’s relaxing.”
Gerard creates crosses, bookmarks, Christmas ornaments, doilies and earrings. She sells some of her work at the museum in Amana.
Even kids in school used to learn how to knit and crochet and tat, Gerard said. Amana settlers made collars and appliques for their clothing using the technique.
Gerard’s mother, Helen Leichsenring grew up in Amana and worked in the woolen mill for many years. She knew how to knit and crochet.
“I was trying to teach her how to tat,” said Gerard.
Leichsenring was left-handed, so Gerard faced her and taught her as in a mirror.
Her mother thought it was too complicated, said Gerard, but tatting is making a comeback, she said.
Tom Oehler and Harvey Jeck displayed their wood working and wood turning during Saturday’s open house.
Oehler grew up around Delhi and lived in Minnesota for years. He moved to Homestead in 2012 and now works as a cooper for the Amana Colonies, making small buckets and other wood items.
“They needed someone to be a cooper,” said Oehler. He had to teach himself. “They gave me three books,” he said. He’s made about 30 buckets, each one taking about 15 hours.
Oehler also makes wooden cooking utensils, wooden tulips and setzholz, a hand implement used to make holes in the ground for plants, seeds or bulbs.
“I’ve always liked woodworking,” said Oehler. “Mostly I make things for the Arts Guild and the Society.”
Harvey creates bowls and other items through wood turning. “It’s just a hobby,” he said. He’s worked construction all his life and took up wood turning in the 1980s.
Harvey uses his imagination to turn pieces of wood into artistic and useful items. He doesn’t like to throw away wood.
Harvey made a bowl for his daughter, and when it cracked. rather than throwing it away, Harvey embellished, incorporating the crack into the artistry of the bowl.
Jeck found a piece of rotten wood, but instead of throwing it away, he made bowl of it, showing off its flaws.
Another vessel is made of Norfolk Pine. You can tell, said Jeck, because you can see where the row of branches used to connect.
One of Jeck’s favorite pieces is a cowboy hat he made by wood turning.
Wood turning is done on a lathe. Everything is round, Harvey said. “You can even turn little things,” he said, like hor d'oeuvres skewers.
Gary Frost, of Coralville, discussed Amana printing with visitors to the museum Saturday. Frost has a print shop in Middle Amana where he works every Saturday morning.
Frost has been a book conservator at the University of Iowa, the University of Texas and Columbia University. He started running the print shop in Middle Amana in 2005.
The Germans were far more inventive than the Mennonites of Kalona, said Frost, as he showed the difference in book bindings. The Germans invented both hardcover and paperback bindings, he said.
“This is like a dream come true,” said Amana Heritage Society board member Margo Fels Jarosz of the new museum. Though Amana has other museums, none show off the folk arts like this one, Jarosz said.
