In Focus: Bemidji Basket Artist Hosts Broom-Making Class to Kick Off Fall

We’re now in October, and with people breaking out their autumn and Halloween decorations, one thing that many put out this season is a broomstick. Wildflower Cottage in Bemidji held a workshop today on how to make brooms from scratch for both decorative and functional use.

Shannon Lucas Westrum of Wildflower Cottage has been basket weaving for nearly three decades, and in that time she’s expanded her repertoire to jewelry making and felting, as well as teaching classes all over the area. And in the past seven or eight years, she’s started broom making.

“Brooms are a great add-in to basketry because there are elements of weaving in there, and it kind of just, it felt like a great complement to those things,” Lucas Westrum explained. “And I think brooms are fun. It’s something you can play with. They’re decorative, they’re useful, and everybody has one.”

The type of broom that the class made was a whisk broom.

“Hands down, my favorite thing to make,” said Lucas Westrum of wisk brooms. “They’re easy, you don’t have to do a lot of soaking or water. … In my mind, at least, they’re one of those sort of conversational, easy classes.”

The brooms are made out of broom corn, a type of sorghum grain that grows to several feet tall. It is then cut down and can remain as is or be dyed.

“And then I use a high-test nylon string to tie most of my brooms with,” continued Lucas Westrum. “I was experimenting, but you’ve got to make sure it’s strong enough because there’s a lot of tension in a broom.”

The classes to make these brooms can be a full-body workout, where your feet hold them down, your hands spin them, and your arms and back hold tension while doing so. But even with all the work that goes into doing these crafts, Lucas Westrum wouldn’t trade her job for anything and knows that for her students, this activity can have a much deeper meaning than just making a fall decoration.

“It is, I firmly believe, a very brave thing for adults to take new classes,” she said. “And whenever people say, ‘Well, you teach,’ they assume we teach kids. Quite frankly, kids have lots of opportunities to take classes, but you don’t always find a great variety of stuff for adults. And adults still need that sense of accomplishment, that sense of something new and that they’ve explored, tried it. Whether they succeed or fail or frustrated or need a little more practice, they’re doing something new, and that, like I said, super brave, super fulfilling when you can pull something off.”

There will be more broomstick and other weaving and crafting classes in the near future. All updates on class times and availability can be found on the Wildflower Cottage Facebook page.