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% [?]

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% [?]

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.

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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.

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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% [?]

Now, this is a besom!

It’s a one-of-a-kind hand-tied besom broom featuring a twisted handle harvested sustainably from the hardwood forests of the Arkansas Ozarks.

The besom is tied out of three layers of full broomcorn stalks. The first two layers are trimmed on the top and bound tightly to the handle with 17 gauge wire. The final layer is bound with 3-ply, 89-pound test jute twine. The binding on the final layer is called plaiting. It is a form of weaving or braiding. Finally, the broom is wrapped with multiple turns of the same jute and a lovely, reinforcing cream twine stitching. The stitching is also in a spiral designed to accent to twist in the handle.

These sticks occur naturally as a vine – usually a honeysuckle vine – will attempt to grow around a sapling, and the sapling tries to outgrow the vine. In this case, the vine won against a sweet gum sapling. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 48% [?]