barberwitch:

barberwitch:

Witch Tip Wednesday 8.15.18

Broomsticks, not Bed Knobs

Brooms! Such an odd thing. Associated with witches, brewers, marriage, homekeeping, and a ton of other stuff.

Sometimes it’s all you can think of when you look at witches, and other times, it seems like the last thing a witch actually uses.

There’s so much lore associated with them, but the store bough, plain looking thing you can grab for a few bucks doesn’t have enough oomph does it? In case you want to make your own and have it really connect to you or your home or even at its shallowest: your style, then this post is for you.

“Corn Brooms” is a term you may have heard, but not know where it comes from. Traditional brooms are made with broom corn, a variety of sorghum (the stuff to make molasses) that looks like corn, but instead of ears, it has stalks with seeds on them that make the basis of the broom.

You can use other things to make the actual bristles of the broom, but at least a knowing the traditional components is important. Straw is another alternative as well as various sticks, herbs and flowers like lavender, eucalyptus, birch twigs etc.

One decision you should make is if it’s for sweeping, or more a symbol. That should be the determining factor of the materials used.

Above is my quick diagram of how you can simply make a broom.

• Fig a. Find a stick, branch or staff the appropriate length for your purposes
• Fig. b. Lay the broom corn, corn flower, cattails or whatever plant you want as the head of the broom with the length going “upwards” towards the length of the staff.
• Fig. c Tie them into place with twine, ribbon, or whatever sturdy string like thing you’ve got, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go around the bristles several time, and put a nail into the ties to keep the bristles from slipping down once it’s completely bound
• Fig. d Now that the bristles are attached, flip them down carefully to keep the bristles from breaking (you can soaks them in water ahead of time to make them more pliable). Tie a finishing string ribbon etc to keep the bristles facing downwards and trim the bristles to the length you want.
• Note: above diagram and description is an excerpt from my almanac.

Here are some additional tips and tricks.

• If you don’t want to invert the bristles or can’t because of the rigidity of materials, you can weave the tops with ribbon like a basket to make it more finished looking.
• You can carve the handle, burn symbols or incantation depending on your purpose, stain and polish the wood, or even leave the wood raw.
• Don’t get carried away, decide its use before making. If it’s super decorative, it won’t function well (say you used lavender stalks…you’ll make more mess than cleaning.)
• If you soak the materials, you can add oils and extracts to scent it like cinnamon brooms sold during fall.
• Incorporate your craft and traditions in the choice of materials. Birch is a common choice for various reasons (do some research), but what about using other woods like elder, blackthorn, willow etc.
• If you plan on using this to clean and actual mundane uses, curing the wood, or using already cured wood, staffs, canes etc will save you a headache. With use and time, uncured wood may split or splinter and render it a mess that you need to sweep up with a different broom.

Good luck! I’ll post a follow up with some history and lore of brooms soon!

🦇Cheers, Barberwitch

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With Fall in full swing, it’s the perfect time to start gathering supplies to make a broom. Plenty of sticks are drying and falling, branches for handles and the cooling air makes moving indoors to craft even more enticing.

My coven is getting ready for our Witches Ball for Samhain and one thing we’re doing is a ritual with brooms! I mentioned that i was planning on making one this past weekend, so thank you @teaspellsandsecrets for suggesting we meet up so I could explain how if anyone had any questions! We ended up at LA Pagan Pride with our supplies and @dylanstarottemple helped me by holding twine and stalks when I needed. It was a fun time and after everyone left, @sarageralds and I walked the booths one last time and everyone asked where we bought them so a nice little ego boost there where strangers want your stuff.

Fig B. Lay the stalks length facing up. I tied these black tail wheat stalks in small bundles of about 5-6 using a continuous string of burlap.

Fig C. Instead of a nail, I carved a small divet and tied twine in it to make my anchor.

Since all the bundles were tied and connected, it was pretty easy to wrap them around the birch rod and tie off the the anchor piece.

Fig. D Start folding down the branches etc down from outside in. Smaller sections will help them from snapping. Soaking them is also a big suggestion. I only got to soak these for about 3 minutes in a lagoon before I made this and longer would have made this easier, but I’m still happy with it. Bend the first layer down around the whole broom, and if there are any gaps, you can bend the branches to cover those a bit in the next ring. Continue until all are facing down and tied them off with more twine.

You want at least one section near the top, and another near the edge of the pole to keep them all facing in the right direction.

Optionally, you can spread the branches a bit and loop them off (similar to fig B) to make a flourished broom, rather than a straight stack. That’s what I did, and here’s my Quartz capped Birch broom with black wheat bristles.

I’ll probably add something where the birch meets the bristles since it’s so thick, and maybe a few other things before the ball to really just make it mine. But here is my quartz tipped birch and black wheat broom. Measures a bit longer than 6 feet from tip to tip.

🦇Cheers, Barberwitch