Hexology! 

Begin with a brew of colorful Swiss-German artistic flair nurtured by the fertile soil of the Rhineland.  Throw in a dash of massive German immigration to South Central Pennsylvania from 1650 thru the 1800's.  When no one is really paying attention, stir in the artistic word license of famed photographer and Harvard graduate, Wallace Nutting.  Carefully add the process of time with the talents of barn painters or hexsign artists such as Milton Hill, Johnny Ott, Don Greth, Jacob Zook, Eric Claypool, and Ivan Hoyt, each with their own sometimes stoic sometimes flamboyant personalities.  Bottle and cork with the avid interest of folklorists, scholars, tourists, researchers, and lovers of colorful design and country prim.  The result?  A fine vintage of dedicated art, myth, and magick that constitutes the American Hex Sign -- one of the most exotic and unusual elixirs to grace the world of primitive artistic endeavor. 

Is it magick...or...is it chust for nice?

Internet Research

http://www.claypoolehexsigns.com -- official site of Hex Artist Eric Claypool.

http://www.amishnews.com/featurearticles/Storyofhexsigns.htm -- 2001 article written by Brad Igou

http://www.worldandi.com/specialreport/walpu/walpu.html -- Article written by Steenie Harvey entitled Season of the Witch -- Walpurgisnacht in Germany's Harz Mountains.

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Hex_sign.htm -- short explanation of Hex Signs, form and use and outlines current controversy on is it, or is it not...magick.

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080526/NEWS06/805260355/-1/NEWS -- article written by Ron Devlin of the Reading Eagle (newspaper), published May 26, 2008.

Sources - for this page...

Gandee, Lee, "Strange Experience -- The Autobiography of a Hexenmeister".  New York, N.Y.: Reward Books/Prentice Hall, 1971.

Greth, Don, "Hearts, Tulips, Distelfinks -- A Study of the History & Sumbolism of Hex Signs PA. Dutch Folklore Designs".  Bird-in-Hand, PA: Don Greth, 1982.

Hoyt, Ivan E., "Hex Signs -- Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Learning the Craft", Mechanicsburg, PA:  Stackpole Books, 2008.

Mauer, Walt, "Hex Signs and Their Meanings".  Gettysburg, PA: Garden Spot Gifts, 1996.

Yoder, Don & Graves, Thomas E., "Hex Signs -- Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Symbols & Their Meaning Revised & Expanded Edition. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2000.

Zook, Jacob & Jane, "Hexology -- The History and Meanings of Hex Signs".  Paradise, PA: Jacob Zook's Hex Shops, Inc., November 1990 printing.

The History of Hex Signs.  Paradise, PA: Will-Char - The Hex Place, 1999.  No author listed.  Information on Jacob Zook, his technique and some of his designs.

Internet Sources as given above under Internet Research.