Kansas Originals Market
(785) 379-0200
I-70 mile marker 188, Topeka Service Area, Kansas Turnpike, Topeka, KS 66607
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I-70 mile marker 188, Topeka Service Area, Kansas Turnpike, Topeka, KS 66607
Kansas Originals Market and Gallery has the largest selection of Kansas-made Kansas-grown products found under one roof anywhere in the world!
Kansas Originals Market & Gallery is located at the junction of Interstate 70 exit 206 and K-232 highways north of Wilson in central Kansas on the Post Rock Scenic Byway. This showcase for the exceptional work of Kansas artists, craftsmen and food producers is visited by thousands of people each year. Travelers from more than 100 foreign countries on six continents have become acquainted with the art, crafts, and food of Kansans. These visitors express an appreciation for the high quality and originality of the work.
Artists who work in limestone create post rock name signs, carved snowmen, post picture frames and desk sets along with small business cardholders and magnets. Kansas craftsmen produce Western coat racks decorated with genuine cowhide and cedar signs. They create intricate wheat weavings, homemade soap, and hand-stitched quilts, hand-blown glass including vases, bowls, festive orbs, and paperweights; fused glass, glass sculptures and stained glass window hangings and decorator pieces.
A large variety of exceptional wood pieces are created by men and women, many of them in their 70s and 80s, including sofa tables, a bread slicer, egg timers, and miniature desks. One 76 year-old lady creates dozens of scroll-saw items—some of them with military insignia. Intricate wooden replicas of farm machinery, toy tops and kaleidoscopes are crafted by a retired life-watch pilot. A retired symphony conductor creates unique pens, bowls, magnifying glasses, unique key chains and vases.
Very popular items are the T-shirts and sweatshirts with Kansas scenes and emblems machine-stitched by a farm family to supplement their income. Wooden benches, cupboards, Osage orange candleholders, lamps and potpourri bowls are made by juveniles from one of the state’s correctional facilities.
Artists create beautiful scenes of the Kansas countryside in oil, watercolor, and pen and ink drawings. Photographers have captured the natural beauty of Kansas in their art photographs. Other artists work with sculptures in copper, brass, and iron. There are hand-carved wooden miniatures; hand-built pottery with wheat and leaf impressions and a large selection of sunflower ceramics. Other items to be found include jewelry, hand-woven jackets, crocheted rugs, hand-embroidered and hemmed tea towels and metal items forged by a blacksmith.
Value-added food products include a variety of flavored salsas, unique relishes, barbecue sauces, and Kansas jams and jellies including sunflower and dandelion. On our shelves you find flour, muffin and dip mixes, noodles, sunflower spread butter, honey and bee pollen, elderberry juice, and some unexpected items such as turkey jerky and buffalo and llama sausage. Ready to eat flavored and candied popcorn, fudge and wheat treats are a big hit with travelers.
Kansas Originals Market & Gallery opened on August 1, 1991. In addition to the main store located at the Intersection of I-70 and K232 north of Wilson, the Foundation operates a store in the Travel Center on the Turnpike east of Topeka and a web catalog at www.kansasoriginals.com.
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