Green hand-dyed, hand-tied Turkey Wing Broom

Green turkey wing broom

This Turkey Wing broom, made from hand-dyed broomcorn is bound with wire and has a graceful forward flip. The handle is plaited (or braided) with twine over natural and hand-dyed, split and trimmed, broomcorn stalk. Because of the method used to tie this broom, no stitching is necessary.

Used to be, folks didn’t have broomcorn to make brooms. Back then, they’d make their brooms with wee little sticks – usually Birch, although we’re told in song that the best brooms were made from Heather (but Scotland’s a long way to go to get a broom), and in the Ozarks, Dogwood – bound to a larger handle. These brooms worked fine for the big stuff laying about the floors, but were hard pressed to get the small stuff ’round woodstoves, fireplaces and counter tops.

To get the small stuff, often, feathers or the entire preserved wing of a largish bird – such as a turkey – was used.

When they started making brooms out of broomcorn around the mid 1700s it was only natural to look at what had been used before.

The Turkey Wing broom was designed like, well, the turkey wing. The side that’s bound mimics the wing bone and the brushy part of the broomcorn fans out as the feathers would.

Not only does a Turkey Wing work great as a whisk or small hearth broom, but it’s a wonderful, unique decoration. Another functional work of art!