Let your imagination guide you as we create truly one-of-a-kind pieces of functional art. In this intermediate level class, explore several traditional and inventive methods of binding brooms and building brushes onto found object handles. Work with a variety of fibers, allowing you to take your creativity to new heights! Moderate hand and body strength needed; some broom making experience recommended. $

Learn to create at least five unique styles of hand brooms, from the traditional turkey wing whisk to colorful, plant-dyed altar brooms, and other functional forms rooted in folk traditions. With an emphasis on technique, form, and creative expression, each broom will carry the imprint of your hands and the story of its making. Through a lens of deep reverence for craft and ancestral memory, explore the process of binding, weaving, and shaping brooms that are as beautiful as they are useful.

Expand your skills and learn advanced techniques in this intermediate and advanced-level class. Develop techniques to get the most out of your brooms, including how to copper wrap handles and incorporate stones. Explore multi-head brooms on antlers and driftwood. Learn new sewing techniques to create artistic pieces, and discuss the past, present, and future of broom making as a profession. $

Here is your chance to try both broom making and basket weaving! Make a cobwebber out of raw broomcorn and a turkey wing or angel whisk from processed broomcorn. Then, on to baskets to weave a melon-style rib basket and a flat reed market basket. With these first projects under your belt, spend the rest of the week exploring more broom or basket options in the area of your choice.

Make your own bespoke broom for sweeping out the ashes! This class combines two contemplative crafts–broom-making and hand tool woodworking. Learn to tie different styles of whisk brooms before you sit down at a shavehorse to use a spokeshave and drawknife to shape a handle for your very own hand-tied hearth broom. No experience with either craft is necessary. Bring your own stick or go hunting for one on the Folk School campus.

Get whisked away for a whirlwind weekend crafting a variety of historic Shaker and Appalachian style hand brooms. Create several functional and decorative whisk designs using color and varying construction styles to take home a cache of whisks, along with the know-how to create more on your own. These highly useful and beautiful gems of the sweeper world put the fun in functional and make fantastic gifts. All levels welcome; some hand and upper body strength required.

Like magic, transform wooden sticks and sorghum straw into enchanting, one-of-a-kind witch or wizard brooms featuring hand-carved faces. Spend the first days learning intricate face carving skills, incorporating stains, and woodburning to create realistic characters. Then, switch to using 18th-century broom making techniques to transform your carved branches into handles for artisan, plaited hearth sweepers and cobweb besom brooms. Presto! All levels welcome; hand strength required. $

Explore all kinds of possibilities in this experimental class. Whether you’re relatively new to broom making or stuck in rut, this class is designed to shake out the cobwebs and challenge you to venture outside your comfort zone. Utilize various design tactics and materials to produce unusual results all while also celebrating traditional broom making techniques. Prior broom making experience and hand dexterity required. $

Here is your chance to try both broom making and basket weaving! Make a cobwebber out of raw broomcorn and a turkey wing or angel whisk from processed broomcorn. Then, on to baskets to weave a melon-style rib basket and a flat reed market basket. With these first projects under your belt, spend the rest of the week exploring more broom or basket options in the area of your choice. $

Explore the traditional craft and emerging art form of broom making. Learn to make whisks, pot scrubbers, cobweb brooms, hearth brooms, and full-sized sweeper brooms from start to finish. All levels welcome; moderate hand and upper-body strength is needed.

Explore brooms on handles, as well as a variety of ways of attaching them together, in this all-levels class. Learn how to make a range of different styles such as kitchen, hearth, cobweb and children's sized brooms. Make multiple brooms and leave with the skills to make more. Some upper body and hand-strength required. $

Get swept up in a week of 18th-century broom making. Starting with sorting and sizing sorghum tassels; learning all about broomcorn, students then whittle and finish rough sticks into fine broom handles. Finally, learn hand-plaiting techniques to make a wide variety of whisk and sweeper brooms. Functional and fanciful, these creations make great gifts. Students will each make multiple brooms and leave with the know-how to continue making more on their own. All levels welcome; some upper body and