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Margruite Krahn got a close look at the floor pattern in the summer kitchen at Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach. She was asked to recreate the colourful floor pattern in September and managed to get a lot of the work completed before the weather turned too cold to continue.
Senior Curator Andrea Klassen says that was a big task, and an important one.
“It's kind of an unusual feature when you say, ‘oh, have you seen the floor in this building?’ But the summer kitchen floor does start a lot of conversations,” says Klassen. “If you've been in that building, it's the most cheerful, friendly looking floor. It's a kind of ochre yellow background, and then it has this pattern of blue and red and white flowers.”
Klassen says it is an historical pattern that was found in a Mennonite housebarn in the village of Sommerfeld, Manitoba.
“And it was recreated for us by artist Margruite Krahn, she's from Neubergthal,” Klassen says. “And her work is really interesting. This isn't the only kind of work she does, but this part of her work is part historical research and part art. She researches these historical Mennonite floor patterns and then she recreates them. So, we had this done, I think initially in about 2010 or 2012 when the summer kitchen was rebuilt, and it was getting kind of worn and rough looking. So, we had her in, in September to come and paint the floor.”
Klassen says that was a tall order.
“It's painstaking work,” she says. “I mean, she spent hours on her knees, bent over the floor, hand stenciling each flower, each color onto the floor.”
Krahn completed that work just before it turned too cold to continue. The only thing that remains on the list is to add a protective coating. Klassen says that will take place in spring.
“When the buildings open up again in spring, we'll have this brand-new floor in the summer kitchen to help interpret this history,” Klassen says.
An exhibit is coming up in January, taking a good look at the detailed patterns found on the floors of many Mennonite homes.
“Margruite Krahn has created an exhibit around this topic of Mennonite floor patterns,” Klassen says. “It's called Resurfacing: Mennonite Floor Patterns, and it will be opening on January 18th at 7:00 o'clock.”
There is no admission fee to attend the opening event, which will include an artist talk, question period, and time to explore the exhibit.
Klassen says it is interesting to see the detailed work of traditional Mennonites, and to learn about the interesting tools they used to create brilliant patterns.
“This would be often the woman of the house who would do the pattern, not exclusively, but generally it was work that she did in the wintertime when there was more time.”
With more time on their hands, women were able to think up their own patterns and find ways to create their own stencils.
“They would create their own stencils out of things they had at home,” Klassen says. “Sometimes pieces of potato. I think Margruite has found patterns that were done with bicycle tires. You put the tire in paint and drive it around the floor in different patterns.”
-With files from Michelle Sawatzky