Sky Sweeper in Sweeping Changes
Available! $500
… and back to the Brooms. This week’s entry is a monumental broom, the tallest from Sweeping changes, titled “Sky Sweeper”. Made of found wood, ting-ting, silver solder and glitter. It soars over 8 feet tall, with a crown I always thought looked like a dragon’s head. (I love the shadow it makes as well, with a strategically placed light)
The stick is a piece of ironwood, (Ostrya virginiana, hophornbeam), with another piece the rootball from I believe a willow, with the ironwood cleverly inserted into a hole and filled with a mix of sawdust and glue to make it disappear. The hornbeam cracked as it dried, revealing its spiral grain, and Rae worked solder into these cracks, tappi
ng lightly with a hammer. a tiny bit of glue and a few sprinklings of glitter…
Detail of “head”
The skirt came from a florist supply house, they called it tingting. Some of it is natural, some dark dyed, some gold and some silver with glitter. About 1/4 inch at a time was wrapped around the stick, then another layer, then another, and the final layer with a few turns of silver cord.
Skirt with base visible
You may have noticed by now I describe the process a lot. I watched, held, and helped, as well as consulted and opined on the process a lot more than the design and symbology. So I know more and remember more about those things, and am more comfortable relaying them. Anything I say about the inspiration or meaning is mostly my own interpretation, or my imperfect memory of what I heard Rae describe at a show.
I have not yet described for any of the brooms what went into making them stand up. Rae went through quite a process to try to figure something out in time for her Sweeping Changes show. The totems were not really a problem. The Celtic Totem actually has an iron I-beam under the skirt. The bronze broom is welded to a circular plate with bolts through it. But for the ones with fiber or broom or twig skirts, she consulted with several of her instructors, and tried to come up with something that would not get in the way of the broom’s lines. For this and several of the others, she ended up with two small iron rings welded to 3 soft iron bars 1/8″ by 3/4″, the rings surround the end of the stick, the bars go down and flare outward, and have small hold used to screw them down to platforms. (we were not very good about documenting process, so I can’t show you under the skirts, sorry.)
Sky Sweeper was inspired by Chinese Dragons, and stories/folklore Rae found concerning storms being caused by gods sweeping out their domiciles. Sand and dust storms from the dry stuff, and rain and wind from the cleaning.