“I was only 13 years of age when I left school to go into my father’s workshop. I served a three-year apprenticeship with my father and grandfather, and then I gave my father notice that I wanted to seek more training.”
Otmar attended a professional trade school in Prague where he earned a master’s degree in cabinet making that included course work in all aspects of wood technology, from growing the trees to harvesting the trees. His skill served him well after the communist occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1949 when he fled to Germany and was able to find work despite high unemployment.
“Leaving my home was very painful, but the communists took over our business and said we were capitalists and an enemy of the state,” said Otmar, of the family business that included his father, grandfather, brother and one apprentice. “I went over the border to Germany at night. If they would have caught me, they would have put me in jail. It was not easy in the camps in Germany. We were always hungry.”
After two years in Germany, Otmar, a gifted and agile gymnast, emigrated to Australia where he worked for five years before moving to Canada and finally to the United States in 1959. In addition to starting his own business in Cincinnati, he also met his wife, Phil, who is in charge of the office at the Furniture by Otmar store located at 301 West Franklin St. in Washington Twp., while two of his seven children run the Cincinnati store.
“With my father we made everything from the cradle to the coffins, but I make only furniture,” said Otmar, who specializes in Scandinavian-style furniture, though he grew up making Renaissance-style furniture in Czechoslovakia. “I use all natural colors and no stains on my furniture. The wood is walnut, cherry, teak and rosewood, with just a little maple.”
Otmar encourages visitors at the store to feel the smooth underside and backs of his furniture to discover the attention to detail that even hidden surfaces receive.
“You can feel more than you can see,” said Otmar, a longtime member of the Kiwanis Club in Cincinnati. “We are all blind when it comes to wood, we learn about it by feel.”
He also allows customers to participate in the crafting process. He invites them to install pieces of wood in mosaic tabletops that they have ordered and then provides them with photographs of the experience.
Otmar has expanded his business with Internet sales, but still enjoys explaining his craft to customers, some of whom are third-generation shoppers.
Contact this columnist at (937) 432-9054 or jjbaer@aol.com.
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