MAKING A CLEAN SWEEP

Wedding Brooms and Handfasting Besoms

2012-02-14T17:40:00.000-08:00

In recent years the weddingtradition of "broom jumping" has become more and more popular, but ithas actually been around for centuries and over the 15+ years I have beenmaking and selling brooms I have come across many different explanations forthe act of "jumping the broom", mostly from the Pagan based religiousfolks and the African American community. According to Wikipedia:

“ Jumping the broom is a phrase and custom relating to wedding ceremonies in different cultural traditions, found in "many diverse cultures, those of Africa − Europe including Scotland, Hungary and Gypsy culture", all of which "include brooms at wedding rituals." [1] It is particularly associated with the Romani gypsy people of the United Kingdom[2], especially those in Wales.[3] There is "evidence showing the wedding custom was practiced by gypsies(sic) in England, Scotland"[4] as well as by African Americans and other groups. ”

The ritual of "broom jumping" is exactly as itsounds. Toward the end of the wedding ritual couples hold hands and jump overthe broom, either together or one at a time and although the symbolism may bedifferent, all couples arrive at the other side of the broom being married.

We have several brooms thatwork great for these ceremonies, it’s totally up to you to choose what broomfits best. For the Neopagan we offer thetraditional ceremonial besom aka the witch’s broom, is about 56 inches long andis sewn in the round “old world” style, it comes in a variety of colors:Natural, Rust, Black or a Mixture of all 3 colors.

We also offer a smallerversion of the witches besom, which we call the cobweb broom or small ceremonial besom at 56 inches it is about 1/3 the thickness of the ceremonial besom. It is only available in natural.

If you are not into the “old world” style besom we havethe kitchen broom aka the wedding broom, which is a flat broom style, 56 incheslong, it comes in a variety of colors: Natural, Rust, Black or a Mixture of all3 colors. We also offer this broom withtree spirit carving ( carved kitchen broom ).

Carved Kitchen Broom

A smaller version of the kitchen broom is the kid’s broom,48 inches long, it comes in a variety of colors: Natural, Rust, Black or aMixture of all 3 colors.

Finally, we have the hearth broom, which is 36 incheslong and it comes in a variety of colors: Natural, Rust, Black or a Mixture ofall 3 colors. We also offer this broomwith tree spirit carving ( carved hearth broom ) and we offer it in the “oldworld” besom style in both regular and carved ( hearth broom round and carved hearth broom round )

Hearth Broom

Carved Hearth Broom

Round Hearth Broom

Round Carved Hearth Broom

You can find all of these brooms and more at my etsy store: www.broomchick.etsy.com or check my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/BROOMCHICK/123580760996450 for ebay auctions.

NEW QUIDDITCH BROOMS

2011-12-12T23:24:00.000-08:00

I've been working on these new Quidditch brooms for the last month and I finally finished them and got them photographed. I'm so excited to show them off, I call it "The Zipper". Hand painted with specially selected twisty stick and a special winding job that stands up to rough-housing. Perfect for your Harry Potter fan! Available on www.broomchick.etsy.com

Eugene Holiday Market and Cyber Monday Sale

2011-11-28T02:18:00.001-08:00

Eugeneans! Come visit us at the Holiday Market at Booth #99 every weekend till Christmas eve!

For those of you who do not live in Eugene, OR. Please enjoy my CYBER MONDAY SALE at

www.broomchick.etsy.com (sale is only for online etsy store).

10% off any purchase with the use of this code at checkout: CYBERMONDAY

Happy Holiday's!! ~Broomchick and Brutus

Fall Photo Shoot - Just in time for Samhain

2011-10-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

Recently had a fun photo shoot at my friend Dawn Baby's house, with Dawn and Jen Drake and some sweet little chickens. The pics turned out great. Had lots of fun!

RUST KITCHEN BROOM

OSTRICH FEATHER DUSTER

NATURAL BESOM

BLACK KITCHEN BROOM

MIXED KITCHEN BROOM

RUST HEARTH BROOM - FLAT

NATURAL KITCHEN BROOM

BESOMS

BROOMS

Broomchick's Got A New Ride!!

2011-09-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

Just in time for the holiday season I traded in my RV for this fancy mini-van, not only is it my favorite color but there is plenty of room for carting around my brooms and of course my Brutus Beefcakes. I count my blessings and am very grateful that I was able to swap it out with no trouble. Having this new van will enable me to go on the road and do more craft shows, so watch out west coast!! Here I come!!

Keep your eyes peeled for this month's issue of Parenting Magazine, I haven't seen it yet, but I have been told that my witches broom will be featured in the Halloween issue. My brooms are a hit this time of year and are a compliment to many halloween costumes. I have 2 designs that are great for WICKED Witches and Harry Potter Enthusiasts: The Witches Broom or the Cobweb broom. You could also complete your Cinderella or Snow White costumes with a lovely Kitchen Broom or the miniature Kid's Broom.

Let's Tour the Broomshop

2011-06-08T18:47:00.000-07:00

I often get emails from folks who are skeptical about how our brooms are made because the quality is so good they assume that they are machine made, so i will attempt to give you a tour of the tools we use in the broom making process. Just recently we were featured on a local news program so I will start by posting a link to the video so that you can see the boys working hard. I was off doing a show that day, so they missed me. http://kezi.com/news/local/214801

In this first photo you see our pedal operated winding machine which we use to wind the broom corn onto the broom stick with. This is one of the hardest and most dangerous jobs in the broom shop and I you can see Seth winding brooms in the beginning of the video in the link I posted above. We use sassafras sticks which we get from the Ozarks of Arkansas where the wood grows wild and it is harvested and kiln dried in an old fashioned kiln. Our broom corn is grown by the Amish, in Southern Illinois, and we dye the corn ourselves in a variety of colors (mostly rust, or black but occasionally we will do purple, green and red).

Once the broom corn is wound onto the stick it then goes to the sewer who loads it into the historic "Shaker Vice" which is what makes the brooms flat. The shaker vice is featured in the second picture on this page and in the video Thurman explains that this particular vice has an iron casting that dates back to 1878. You can also see a demonstration of Michael sewing a broom bare handed with a flat needle that has its hole in the center of the needle. Michael has hardened his hands to the point that he no longer needs to use finger tape and leather palm cuffs, unlike me. when I sit down to sew a broom with my sissy girl fingers I tape nearly every finger with surgical tape, then I put my thick leather and metal palm cuffs on and get to work. I probably waste a good 10 minutes just prepping to sew (I do not have calluses caused from pulling on the strings and blistering... thank goodness). Most brooms take about 4 rows of stitching, the smaller ones we do two lines on.

When the broom is sewn it then goes into a pile next to the platting table where it will eventually be platted. Platting is what we call the basket weave decoration that goes over the metal winding wire at the top of the broom. The plats are actually the stock of the broom corn plant and we cut them into about 8 inch sections then slice them in half and we soak them in buckets of water to soften them up, then using the contraption we call a winding table (in the fourth photograph) we use our feet on the wheel for tension as we weave the plats onto the broom. Much like sewing this requires a great deal of upper body strength and we get quite a workout from platting.

The final stage of broom making is what we call "trim, hole and leather" and it's exactly that. We use a guillotine style trimmer to trim the broom corn flat, then using a drill press we drill a hole at the top of the stick and finish up with a piece of leather. There you have it.

We make a variety of brooms for many different purposes, all of which i will highlight in my upcoming blogs so please keep posted.

Cheers to making a clean sweep!!
~Broomchick

HA Aloha Passport Promotion: Photo

2011-02-24T10:33:00.000-08:00

HA Aloha Passport Promotion: Photo

I'm trying to win a trip back to Hawaii so please vote for me!!!
All you have to do is go to this link and hit the "like" button under my passport pics and you will have voted!!
Thanks a bunch!!! XOXO
Contest ends April 7

BROOMCHICK GOES TO MAUI.......AGAIN

2011-02-02T00:43:00.000-08:00

The Holiday's 2010

2010-12-28T23:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Holiday's!!!

I am so excited to announce that I am blogging from my spiffy new laptop now. Yay!! I'm a mobile Broom Chick!! I have a feeling that i will be bloggin a whole lot more, and i have many wonderful adventures ahead of me.

My day job sprung up lemons and I will be making lemonade, lemon bars and lemon merangue and bathing in lemon juice for a while. As sour as it seems, I happen to like lemons and now I have more time to be BROOMCHICK. "dunt dunt dunnnnn!!!". I also have time to do some other things that i have been wanting to do for years, like make glass perfume bottles and pretty glass beads.

I am also very excited to announce that i will be dragging my brooms off to Maui, Hi. in February, so if you happen to be in Lahina I think i'm going to try selling under the banyon tree, if i can. I'll be hangin' out at Akimbo Glass Studio's, and most importantly hanging out at for Maui Open Studios. So excited!! !!

I finished off my year on etsy with a fabulous record breaking holiday season and recieved 2 of the sweetest compliments on my feedback.

HOLIDAY BROOMS AT EUGENE HOLIDAY MARKET

2010-12-17T09:51:00.000-08:00

Wow the time has really been flying by!! It's 1 week till Christmas and the height of broom season!!
You can find us at the Holiday Market this next week and HOLIDAY MARKET VENDORS don't forget to take advantage of the HOLIDAY BROOM SALE on December 24th after 3pm we offer Eugene Holiday Market Vendors wholesale price on our entire stock of brooms. It's been a tradition for over 15 years!
If you need something shipped for christmas it's not too late, I can ship expedite UPS. Just let me know and I'll figure out the shipping. Shipping every day now!!

SUMMER FUN!! OCF AND YACHATS SUNDAY MARKET

2010-07-06T23:45:00.001-07:00

THIS WEEKEND I'LL BE OUT AT THE OREGON COUNTRY FAIR IN OUR NEW BOOTH!!! LOOK FOR US AT THE BOTTOM LEFT SIDE OF THE "8" ON THE RIGHT SIDE. SEE YOU THERE!!!

I do believe this may be one of the funnest summers i have had in years. I started the season off by taking a trip with my girls to see the Hoods up ten mile creek road in yachats. It was truely a Magical solstice weekend! Big changes are on the horizon and I AM READY!!! I feel strong enough to take on the world (whatever that may be).

This last weekend my partner in the glass world (Emrich) and I headed back to the coast to visit our friend Bill Murphy who was having the grand opening of his new gallery and studio in South Beach OR. It was a beautiful space smack dab in the middle of Aquarium Village across from the Aquarium, a great place for tourists.

Emrich was great company and we had a lovely dinner at THE ADOBE RESORT in Yachats which i highly recommend. It has one of the most stunning views of the ocean that i have seen from a resteraunt on the Oregon coast. This photo does not do it justice at all.

I'm hoping to spend lots more weekends at the coast this summer so look for me at the YACHATS SUNDAY MARKET!!

They just keep going and going and going.........

2010-03-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

I'm still not sure how all this blogging business works but i plan to keep a-pluggin' away slowly and researching and making new friends. Hopefully it'll all just flow together nicely and all these fun networking tools will pay off. Besides that, I think this is a great way to keep memories alive.

It may seem odd, the ramblings of a broomchick, but these brooms have taken me through some outrageous adventures and in time I will tell some tales. Today I have a tale to tell about an old broom. I often get questions about the durability of my brooms and can tell folks from experience that I have brooms in my house that I use regularly that I made 15 years ago and they are still in fabulous shape.

**THE GOLDEN RULE IS TO ALWAYS HANG UP YOUR BROOM**

Well, I have to say, in all honesty, that my brooms are still fabulous after all these years and i HAVE NOT always hung them up. The very small group of broom makers that i have been making brooms with have been in business for over 25 years and I can also say that I have seen much older brooms around the shop that are also still in great shape.

I get many letters and emails from folks who have had our brooms for many years and they have nothing but compliments. The broom corn we use is very good quality and because it is dried naturally it retains a fair amount of it's elasticity from it's natural oils.

*While the broom itself will hold up for a very long time, the binding on top (which we call platting) will sometimes come unwound after many years. That is very easy to fix and can be done for free if you walk the broom into my shop, or for just the cost of shipping if you send it to me. *

I received a letter just yesterday from a woman named Cynthia who bought a broom from us in at a craft fair in San Francisco 25 years ago!!! She sent these pictures.

Hand Brooms for Glass Blowers

2010-03-01T22:44:00.001-08:00

I work 9-5, Mon thru Fri at the Eugene Glass School and the glass industry has become another great passion to me. While walking through the shop a couple of months ago i noticed a raggedy old make-shift hand broom hanging from one of the benches in the hot shop. It was obviously made from an old broom that someone cut the bristles off of and bound together with a piece of wire. It was badly burnt and i wondered what the heck it could possibly be used for.

Apparently handbrooms are used to brush colored glass powder and frit on hot glass pieces I assume to even out the color and possibly texture. The make-shift hand broom appeared to be made of the thicker portion of the broom corn making a stiffer broom than a regular hand broom.

Well, I got to thinking....... there has to be a better hand broom out there for glass blowers who spend a considerable amount of time and money on their tools so i went looking and i didn't find a thing. So after talking with some glass blowers and making a few trial brooms I think i came up with a good little broom for the job.

This little hand broom can be soaked in water and used to sweep hot glass. Because it is made of good quality broom corn it doesn't just catch on fire and burn up it burns slowly so you wont burn through it too fast. I will have a few sizes available as i have found that some glassblowers like to use shorter ones that are more stiff ands some prefer longer bristles.

Available for sale now on my ETSY: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=41805429

SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE!

2009-06-17T16:13:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much chance to blog lately because my mother has to move and I have to help her. I've been up to my ears in work and mom stuff, but this weekend my girls (Chrystal and Amber) and I are off to our favorite place in the world, 10 Mile, to see our favorite sea critters Searose and Jasmine and Jewels. We will be celebrating Litha, otherwise known as the summer solstice. For this occation I purchased some goodies from my favorite White Witch, Nancy, at the White Witch Shoppe on Etsy: Midsummers Nights Eve Ritual Kit for Litha and Summer Solstice.

Celebrating with my friends will be the perfect retreat and just long enough to start feeling good again.

TREASURE KEEPERS AND TREASURIES

2009-05-11T10:48:00.000-07:00

Last week I ordered a gift for my dear freind Amber, who never reads my blog. :) Thank goodness, cause I haven't given her the gift yet, and here I am blogging about it. I was just too excited to keep it to myself! The gift is so perfect for Amber and so well made. What I like the most about it is that it's so big. It's about 2 inches tall and you can really hide some stuff in that locket! I love the painting too, it's so pretty and it kind-of looks link Amber too. I had them change out the red crystal for an emerald colored one because emerald is her birth stone (mine too). I paid $20 plus shipping for this lovely locket and it was worth every penny! You can find many more lovely lockets and pendants just like this on ETSY at
SpellboundWings .

I was recently included in a couple of treasuries on Etsy:

TREASURY WEST

"Just keepin' it clean"

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=53468

&

TREASURY WEST

"Pink skies at night"

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=53406

WEDDING BROOMS AND WICKED PERFUMES

2009-05-01T13:56:00.000-07:00

WEDDING BROOMS

Today I posted 4 wedding broom / handfasting besoms. One of each color and one broom with all the colors mixed. These brooms come with custom hand-carved bride and groom names and date of the wedding.
Throughout my 12+ years of broom making hundreds of people have purchased our brooms for use in their wedding/handfasting ceremonies and I have found that this ritual is practiced in many different cultures.

WICKED PERFUMES

I recently purchased a collection of oil scents from Velvet Moon Bathery on ETSY called "The Art of Poisoning". A 5 set fragrance of the following scents: Posion Noir, Arsenic and Lace, Belladonna, Absinthe, Death By Chocolate.
My favorite 2 scents in this collection are Arsenic and Lace which the artist describes as "The classy lady who is sweet and seductive, yet malicious and deadly. Many take caution as to not fall victim to the death web she weaves .The classic and nostalgic fragrance of Gardenia Blossoms with soft notes of amber and vanilla." and Belladonna, described as "A fragrance that captures the flowering and poisonous beauty of Deadly Nightshade with an irresistible sweet temptation Dark floral notes of Violets, Lilacs and Jasmine blended with a hint of woody Fig topped with sweet notes of tantalizing black berry and apple blossom".

Both my favorite scents smell much different in the 1/32 oz sample bottle than on my skin, I was so suprised at that and the fact that they last all day!

I can't wait to try out another of her lovely scent collections and maybe get a bottle of my favorites. I LOVE THIS STUFF!

ANOTHER FEATURE DAY

2009-04-28T11:09:00.000-07:00

How cool! My HEARTH BROOM was featured on the front page of the MY HANDMADE REGISTRY website today! I love that. I had no idea about this site, but it's an alternative way to register for baby showers and weddings etc. using all items that are handmade by friends. What an awesome idea! This particular registery was created by fellow ETSY artist KAREN LORENC - Colorful Stoneware Pottery. The MY HANDMADE REGISTY website was featured on the ETSY BLOG: THE STORQUE in an spotlight called "Handmade Weddings: Off-Road Wedding Gift Guide". Cool networking!

NEW OSTRICH FEATHER DUSTERS

2009-04-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

I added something new to my shop today, Ostrich Feather Dusters with decorative leather handles in a variety of decorative colors: black, blue, green, gray and burgandy.
Ostrich feathers are awesome for dusting they attract dust because of the bird feather oil. If you have a special request in color combo please ask, I have a variety of leather colors to choose from, the ones I have listed are just a few.

WHITE MAGIC

2009-04-24T22:12:00.001-07:00

I was cruising around Etsy a few weeks ago looking to collect some favorites and I found this cute little shop on ETSY:

WHITE MAGICK SHOPPE

I instantly fell in love and I convinced the owner (Nancy) to do a trade with me. I got my loot today and I love it! She makes the best candles ever! They smell so good and all of her sparkling spell powders are made with the best quality oils, organic herbs, and resins. I highly recommend that you check it out. Here's a pic of the lovely candles I got. Go there and don't forget to mention that I sent you!

In The Beginning...

2009-04-23T14:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't know much about this blogger stuff, but I am willing to learn. It seems like it could be a great tool for my broom business and to keep friends and family up to date with my life.

BEST DAY EVER!! -------------->

Today I was featured on the front page of ETSY for like 2 seconds or something. I don't know exactly how that works, but I'm going to look into it because WOW! I got so many messages and I made a sale right away.

KITCHEN BROOM - MIXED COLORS

The mix of colors is: rust, natural and black broom corn.