New Generation at Amana Woolen Mill

300 Years of Amana Textile Tradition
New Generation at Amana Woolen Mill
Dave Albert and Tim Carry work on the Sulzer loom.
D
ave Albert and Tim Carry resolve a
minor issue with the large Sulzer loom
at the Amana Woolen Mill.
The loom, Swiss-made and purchased
last spring, weaves bed-sized blankets and
right now is set up to produce a luxuriously
soft, cotton stripe with a delicate herring
bone pattern in sage and slate colored yarn.
The Amana Woolen Mill is one of a very
few mills in America that weave bed-sized
blankets. The design now on the loom is one
of 72 cotton and 35 wool blanket designs
produced at the Amana Woolen Mill. In
addition to the bed blankets, the Amana mill
makes smaller, throw blankets and stadium
blankets in both cotton and wool.
The full collection of blanket designs,
known as “the book” is under review as
Alison Cooper, the mill’s in-house designer
and Stephanie Van’t Sant, Amana Woolen
Mill manager, scrutinize each design. Van’t
Sant told us, “We want our designs to be
focused and fresh while retaining the heart
of our brand, those traditional big, bold
watch plaids and those softer, herring bone
patterns our customers love and associate
with Amana blankets.” While keeping
the most popular designs, Cooper will be
creating variations on past designs and the
Amana Mill will be adding new designs and
new products.
The goal is to strengthen the Amana
Woolens brand and increase sales. So far
it’s working as sales have dramatically
improved with the addition of the bed-sized
blankets, sales via Amanashops.com and
sales through the national catalog retailer
Vermont Country Store. Resurrecting past
Alison Cooper examines a loom “punch card.”
designs and creating contemporary looks
will help the company achieve its goal.
Cooper, a graduate of the Kansas City
Art Institute College of Art and Design, is
a designer and weaver whose keen interest
in the commercial production of textiles
led her to an expert understanding of all
steps of production. Her skill set and her
design experience make her the perfect fit
for the design job at the
Amana Woolen Mill. “I
fell in love with weaving.
. . it’s technical and it’s
creative at the same
time.”
The process of creating
textiles starts, as all
good design does, with
a vision. “Maybe it’s a
cliche, but I am inspired
by nature. . .the colors,
the textures, the patterns
you see and find, the
variety and intensity . .
.those sort of speak to
me,” she said.
Working first on paper
to sketch her ideas, Cooper then uses
a computer program that allows her to
translate her design into a set of detailed
instructions for the Sulzer loom and for the
smaller looms which work off of a punchcard system that directs the operation of
the loom much like a player piano. That’s
a simplification of course, for weaving,
which requires a very precise and deft
handling of each and every thread, is
highly technical.
Creating a design card that shows,
thread by thread, how the looms should
be set up and other specific information
required by the weavers, along with a
miniature reproduction of the design itself,
Cooper transposes it into various colors.
“But you can’t just pick colors based upon
how they look on a spindle. When you put
one color of yarn next to another you can
get a third color, so you have to be careful.
You have to use the fiber in a way that best
expresses the design.”
Cooper and Van’t Sant have
collaborated on a new color palate for
2014. “We’re taking into account trends
and what people seem to be looking for,
but really it’s very subjective and you have
to go with your gut,” Van’t Sant explained
Mill manager Stephanie Van’t Sant in the Amana Woolen Mill retail shop.
as we take a look at a color card that has a
muted mustard color, a lovely grass green
and various creamy shades of umber and
sand. All are warm, rich tones that appeal. “I’m drawn to the lighter, natural
shades,” Cooper muses. “I think in bedding
especially you want something that’s
beautiful and relaxing. Something that will
work with other bolder colors or stand on its
own. Color is so important.”
Finally samples of the new design are
woven and evaluated, quality and appeal
being the rule. “It has to feel good to the
touch, look good and the textile has to last,
to stand up to use and time, those are the
things we want,” said Cooper.
Elevating design is her mission, but since
coming on board, Cooper has untangled a
few production issues making it easier for
the mill to turn out product. “We want to
move from one design to the next and weave
as efficiently as possible and Ali is helping
us achieve that,” Van’t Sant explained.
Cooper took on the job this year.
Van’t Sant, who started in the mill as a
sales clerk, has quite a bit more time on
the clock, but some staff members have
been at the mill for over four decades.
So much has changed in the consumer
housewares and bedding market, but
recent changes have been a good thing
for the mill. The growing appreciation
and support for quality, American-made
textiles and a willingness to seek out
that locally-made product, has brought
new customers and new marketing
opportunities to the Amana Woolen Mill. Poised for growth, the team at the
mill is looking ahead. “Everyday we’re
coming up with things we want to do...
It’s pretty exciting here at the mill,” said
Van’t Sant as she got back to work.
- Emilie Hoppe
The Amana Woolen Mill is the oldest continuously working woolen mill in
America. The mill was founded by the Amana community in 1857.
Indeed the mill’s history reaches back 300 years to the founding of the Amana
Inspirationist community in 1714 Germany where spinning and weaving were
among the very few trades open to religious dissenters. Over time textile production
grew among community members. When they embarked for America in 1844 they
brought their looms and pooled their wealth to set up a woolen mill and linen weaving
operation in Ebenezer, New York. In 1855 the Inspirationists moved from Ebenezer to
Iowa. Establishing a textile mill in their new Iowa home to provide an income for the
community was a matter of survival, so equipment and materials were shipped from
Ebenezer to Amana. The first mill building was built in 1857 making it one of the first
manufacturing plants in the new state of Iowa. Soon the Amana name became linked to
quality woolens. A terrible fire in 1923 destroyed much of the mill and though it was
rebuilt and mill operations continued, the losses helped to hasten the end of Amana’s
communal way of life. In 1932 the communal system ended, an event known locally
as “the Great Change” and a new profit-sharing corporation was set up called the
Amana Society. The farmland and all enterprises, including the Woolen Mills, were
placed within the Amana Society under the management of a board of directors.
Today the Amana Woolen Mill is wholly owned and operated by of the Amana
Society whose shareholders are residents of the Colonies and descendants of the
original community members.
In the 1980’s when economic factors combined to force the closing of most
American textile mills, the Amana Woolen Mill focused upon quality wool and cotton
stadium blanket weaving outsourcing its washing and dying operations to other
American mills. Then in 1998 a straight line wind storm tore the roof off the centuryold weaving building. After the storm the weaving building was restored inside and
out to its turn of the century appearance with a pitched roof and dormer windows and
production continued.
In the past decade with the opportunities offered by online sales and the
growing popularity of American-made products, Amana Woolens has experienced
a renaissance. Through it all, fire and windstorm, cultural change and economic
upheaval, weaving has continued at the Amana Woolen Mill and the Amana brand has
proven as durable as an Amana blanket.