How Do Amish Women Make Money? (part 1)
Hard work and self-sufficiency are very important aspects of
living in an Amish community. In order to be successful and able to take care
of themselves with no outside help whatsoever, every member of the family works
in some capacity to help the Amish family and the Amish community itself
survive and thrive. Every member of an Amish family helps to provide some sort
of income for the Amish community at large the best they can. Even the Amish children,
from a very early age, learn the value of hard work and the importance of
productivity. Amish men usually provide income for the family through farming,
building, furniture making, woodworking, and selling other handmade wares to
the other locals and tourists. Sometimes Amish men even take jobs outside the
Amish community to provide for the family.
Amish women play a very important part in the success of the
Amish community and provide much needed income through a variety of different
business ventures. In an Amish community, the women are solely responsible for
tending to the home, working in the yard, keeping the garden, cooking, sewing
and washing the clothes, and raising the children. Many Amish women have found
their particular household skills quite useful in providing a significant
income to the family and Amish community at large. Many Amish families set up
shops and stores to sell their handmade goods and wares to tourists. While the
men sell Amish made beds, hope chests, wooden toys, picnic baskets, tools, and the
fresh produce they grow from their crops, the Amish women have found success
selling handmade Amish quilts, canned goods, floral arrangements, toys, and
baked goods. Some Amish women even work as midwives, in non-Amish birthing
centers, or as teachers in Amish schools.
Probably the most lucrative business for Amish women is the
Amish quilting business. People travel from around the world to visit these
tiny Amish communities to buy one of their beautifully handcrafted Amish
quilts. Known for their simplicity, the Amish quilt is one of the few ways
that Amish women can truly express themselves artistically. While the Amish
pride themselves on shunning society and using their time to focus on what is
necessary, the Amish quilt is somewhat of an exception. Most Amish communities
wear only dark colored clothes and do not decorate their homes in any sort of
ostentatious way because to do otherwise would be useless since it doesn’t
serve God in any sort of meaningful way. However, because the quilt itself
serves the purpose of warmth, the Amish women gradually used more designs and
more colors to create the Amish quilt patterns of today. As a result, many
Amish quilts fetch prices in excess of $1,000 for a single quilt! This is due
to the fact that in today’s manufactured world, finding something of beauty
that is truly made by hand is difficult at best. The Amish quilt has become
famous for its simplistic, yet colorful designs that consist of a wide range of
patterns, including stars, flowers, baskets, and geometric designs.
Amish women use their sewing talents in other ways to make
money for their families as well. Most Amish women are responsible for making
the clothing that their children, husbands, and even they wear throughout the
year. So, Amish women are usually quite talented when it comes to sewing
everything from pants to dresses to the signature bonnets that every Amish girl
wears. While most people outside the Amish community are not in the market for
Amish clothing, they are interested in buying some of their handmade Amish dolls.
Faceless dolls are given to Amish children to play with because the Amish
believe in rejecting the graven image out of modesty. These faceless Amish
dolls and clothes are hand sewn for the children of the Amish community, but
have also become quite popular with tourists alike.
How Do Amish Women Make Money (part 2)
