If you’re like me, then for most of your life you’ve probably not thought much about broom-making or brooms. Yes they’re useful household tools, but I’m not a huge fan of housework, so brooms got “swept” to the back of my mind.
That is, until I joined Instagram a few years back and started to see some photos that really intrigued me. People were posting pictures of the most beautiful, colorful brooms and hand-whisks I’d ever seen. They’d crafted them by hand, using traditional skills and techniques. Instantly, I became obsessed with these artisan brooms.
Not only are they gorgeous-looking enough to display as artworks on your wall at home, but they’re also useful in keeping things clean. They come in a myriad shapes and sizes and materials and they also have stories and folklore and magic attached to them. What’s not to like?
People have really started to notice hand-made brooms. The Strategist published an article on them – you can read it here.
Deborah Needleman wrote, “Nearly all brooms today are unremarkable objects mass-produced in Mexico, [besides] a small number of people in North America devoted to handcrafting them. The makers run the gamut from Americana buffs to hippie holdouts, and the brooms are mostly minimalist Shaker or backwoods Appalachian in style.”
We plan on posting a broom-making tutorial here in the near future, so keep an eye on this blog. Meanwhile, marvel at the designs and materials and many uses of hand-made brooms and whisks in our shop category BROOMS & BROOM MAKING.