Laffing Horse Crafts

The date for the SweepIn broom maker’s gathering is approaching, and the event continues to grow! I have to say that when this idea first came up, I thought, sure, why not… it’s be fun to get a a small group together and talk about brooms. Small group? No! At present more than 45 people have expressed an interest in attending and the information has only been listed here on my website, the broom makers list, and there’s been a bit of word of mouth traffic.

I also thought it’s be nice to have a class or a demonstration or two. This has grown, too! At present we have 2 classes, 3 demonstrations, 2 presentations… well, instead of my rambling on, take a look at the schedule I’ve put together:

OUR EVENTS

These are tentative and subject to change. Note that Friday and Saturday events will be open to visitors.

THURSDAY

• Setup after 5 p.m.
• There’s also going to be some demonstrating on Mountain View’s Courthouse Square in the evening! Feel free to join us… let’s get the word out!

FRIDAY

• Setup before 10 a.m.
• Friday morning: Meet and greet! Enter art brooms.
• Friday afternoon: Traditional Round Ozark Fireside Broom Class with Bill Soetaert. Cost is $50. 1 pm to 4:30 p.m. class may end earlier.
• Friday afternoon: “Grow your own broom” presentation by Little John. No cost, open to the public. 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

SATURDAY

• Saturday morning: Whisks 101 – Turkey Wings and Hawk Tails with Little John. Cost $50. 9 am to 12:30 pm class may run longer.
• Dyeing broomcorn demonstration – all afternoon
• Traditional Besom tying demonstration – Time TBA
• Broomcorn seeding demonstration – Time TBA. Demonstration may be repeated.
• Friday afternoon: “Grow your own broom” presentation by Little John. No cost, open to the public. 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

SUNDAY

• Materials round robin and tool swap 9 am until it’s over
• Many fond farewells!

There’s usually music being played all around the square on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, and your fee gets you into a concert either Friday or Saturday night at the Ozark Folk Center where the doors open at 6:30 and the concert starts at 7 p.m. and ends around 9 or 10 depending on the number of groups playing and the number of curtain calls they get).

Looks like there’s nary a moment to be bored!

If you’re wanting to attend as a broom maker, you’ll need to download, fill out, and send back one of the registration forms:

• SweepIn Registration Form in Microsoft Word Format
• SweepIn Registration From in PDF format

Popularity: 20% [?]

As you may have read earlier, we’re planning a broom-makers get together in April at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, AR. The response has been much larger than I had ever imagined! To streamline things, I’ve put together an information packet and a registration form. You can download it here:

MS Word .DOC File

or

Acrobat Reader .PDF File

If I missed something or you have an additional question, please feel free to email me.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Broom and their old world cousins, besoms, have a wonderful, long and often humorous folklore filled history.

For instance, it’s said that if you leave a broom outside your door, uninvited evil visitors will have to stop and count all of the broomstraws and are thus prevented from entering. They also say that if you sweep a circle around someone, you’ll marry them. If you lean a broom in a corner while people are visiting, it’s supposed to be a hint that they’ve overstayed their welcome.

Of all the folklore and traditions out there, one of my favorite is the Wedding Broom.

It seems that brooms have always been a part of the wedding ceremony.

In the 14th century in northern European and Scandinavian countries, a broom was propped diagonally across the entrance to a new home. The bride and groom had to, one at a time, jump over the broom into the home without disturbing the broom in order to be considered married. If the broom was tipped over, the wedding was off.

They also allowed for divorce. All you had to do was jump out of the house over the broom without dislodging it – backwards!

Some will tell you that only peasants jumped the broom as a wedding ceremony because the broom was representative of the threshold – the entrance into a new life together.

Africans were often told these stories from the old world on their long, sad journey to the new world, and may have had some of their own history to add to it. When working the plantations as slaves, they were not allowed to have any religious ceremony and they, too, took to jumping the broom as a form of marriage.

The Church put an end to the broom jumping around the 16th century and made priests officiate the weddings. But that didn’t mean the broom was left out of the picture. It became a traditional wedding present! Not necessarily a nice thing either… it was kind of sneaky, truth be told. The mother of the groom would give the bride a broom. Then, at some point in the future, the mother-in-law would pay the young wife a visit and take a look at the broom – which was always hung with care in the kitchen or near the hearth. The mother-in-law would be able to tell how her son’s choice was working out: If the broom had even wear, it was being used right and the young lady knew how to clean house; If the broom had uneven wear or was starting to curl, she wasn’t using it right and needed some instruction; And, if the broom was unused or, heaven forbid, missing, all bets were off – this gal hadn’t a clue!

When families started to spread out a bit more the tradition of spying had to be dropped, but the broom remained. In the 18th century the bride would be given a broom and attached to the handle was a little saying. “In good weather, use the bushy end. In stormy, use the other.” I imagine a stout ash or hickory handle tamed many a husband during bouts of “stormy weather.”

To this very day, many weddings incorporate a broom dance into the festivities and some have even kept the jumping of the broom alive.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Back in late September or early October, I was in the broom shop at the Ozark Folk Center, chatting with visitors while between brooms when in comes a little bundle of smiles and energy and creativity accompanied by her mother. Seems the young gal, Julianna, had come up with an idea for a Halloween costume and I was just the guy to advise her in creating it.

Now, I know that everyone is thinking witch. And you’d be right… almost.

Julianna wanted her mother to be a witch and she wanted to be the broom!

Here’s what her Karen, her mother, had to say:

If you can recall…Julianna came up with this idea herself and knew I would be her witch. There wasn’t a soul, while trick or treating, that doubted who we were. She did not, however, win the costume contest.

Thank you again. This made the trip even more memorable!

I think the judges must’ve been bought off!

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story!

Taking measurements

The making of…

Trying things on.

Dressed and ready

Trick or Treating

Ready to ride

Popularity: 60% [?]

You'll see more brooms than you can shake a ...er... broomstick at

The Ozark Folk Center State Park in Mountain View Arkansas will be the site of a historic gathering of craftspeople honoring the centuries old skill of broom making on Friday, April 23 through Saturday April 25, 2010.

The gathering, a first of it’s kind, has been named the “SweepIn” and will feature some of the most recognized Broom Squires in the United States.

“A lot of well known broom makers have signed up to be a part of this event. They’re bringing broom making styles, stories, and equipment from all over the United States and Canada,” says Shawn Hoefer, artist and broom squire.   “Much of the SweepIn will be open to the visitors to the Ozark Folk Center, too. Once people enter the crafts village at the Ozark Folk Center they can view the demonstrations, look at the displays, participate in the talks and even take a class or two. There are some additional fees for some of the classes, though.”

Some of the activities in the works include learning how to make small hand brooms or a traditional round hearth broom, discuss the materials used in broommaking, see demonstrations of the dying of broomcorn, and watch demonstrations of fancy stitching and the creation of one-of-a-kind art brooms.

“Among some of the educational events,”, says Hoefer with a smile, “There will be someone there demonstrating the proper use of brooms… which does not involve straddling or flying!”

Information on the historic event or registration procedures can be obtained by emailing Shawn Hoefer at shawnhoefer@gmail.com.

You can also subscribe to this website’s RSS feed for more information as it becomes available.

Popularity: 75% [?]

This is a nicely fanned out Turkey Wing broom bound with strong, durable, yet fine nylon twine. As I approached the top of the broom… the end of the binding. At that point, I switched by way of a secure splice, to a yellow twine which I used to plait (the woven handle) over purple hand-dyed basket reed. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 87% [?]

Going green? This kitchen broom is just the thing. Featuring a smooth standard hardwood handle, hand-dyed green broomcorn, matching hand-dyed green split and trimmed broomcorn stalk plait (the weave at the top of the sweep), and a fancy green over white pattern band of stitching, this is one very functional, very artistic broom. Great for work or decoration.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 87% [?]

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 94% [?]

Several of my customers have repeatedly asked me to include something with my photographs so that they would have an idea of the scale of the brooms. It was something I had never thought of as I see them everyday.

I thought I’d start that today…

Broom with scale

What do you think? Is it working?

Now, I’m not normally such a smarta… er… wise guy. OK, I am, but this was special.

Recovered? OK, try these on and let me know what you think…

These are everyday (sort of) household items, but I think that they convey more of a sense of the rustic charm that I feel is imbued with my brooms than say, a quarter or a yardstick. Right?

Furthermore, when possible, I’m gonna start taking measurements of the brooms and I’ll post that information in the post, too.

I’m here to tell ya that this stuff is harder than it looks… thanks to everyone that’s sent advice and critiques… keep ‘em comin’.

Popularity: 24% [?]

The Tom Turkey Wing is not my idea. In fact, some localities call this the turkey wing and have no idea what it is I am doing. That said, I learned to make Turkey Wings flipped the other direction or straight down. Some time after I learned this and was bumbling on my merry way, a friend brought in a Turkey Wing style broom that was unlike any I had seen before.

Regular turkey wing in purple

Normally, when presented with something like this I take it apart and reverse engineer it. Seemed like that approach might be a little rude what with it being a gift from my neighbor and all…

Many attempts later, I had figgered out the secrets! I was making them and I arbitrarily decided to call them Tom Turkey Wings cause they reminded me of a Tom Turkey with his wings held down as he struts about during mating season.

Large Tom Turkey Wing - about 20-inches in length

To make a short story long, the above broom was noticed by a visitor (Hi, Elena) to my site and she decided to have it.

Silly me, I talked her out of it! This is huge for a hand broom and she wanted a hand broom. I told her I could make her one quite similar, but much smaller. She keeps asking me to include something in the photographs so she could determine scale. What a concept…

This will be shipping tomorrow!

The moral of the story? If you ever see a product on my site and want it, but don’t like the shape of the color, or size, drop me a line and I’ll make something just for you!

Popularity: 21% [?]