Quilted Maple, Broomcorn
Available! $600
From Sweeping Changes
This piece is probably the closest of any of Rae’s brooms to a “traditional” broom. If it were not mounted on the iron tripod, you could easily sweep the floor with it. One of the few pieces Rae turned on a lathe. She didn’t really like doing lathe work, too much flying debris, noise and dust, I think.
The skirt was modeled after a craft broom she saw in a shop down south, with the broomcorn stalks still attached, and woven in a circular pattern, making a besom rather than the standard flat broom. Robert Burns wrote a poem/song to the besom.
The wood is a piece of quilted maple, part of a larger piece that Rae bought from BVC hardwoods while Larry was still in the business. The rough-sawn wood did not reveal the deep, lustrous, curly grain until it was polished with several ever-finer grades of sandpaper, and finally fine steel wool, and then a simple clear oil finish made it glow. I could lose myself in the swirls and ribbons of its grain. That stick takes the broom from its otherwise simple appearance to a transcendent glory. Or so I’ve always thought.
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