The Forest Broom

The handles for this broom are harvested from the Berea College Forest by staff and students. With Berea’s Seventh Great Commitment to supportive and sustainable living in mind, this broom takes another step in the direction of thoughtful, elevated making. Working in collaboration with the Forestry Department, the Red Maple saplings – a native but increasingly invasive tree – are selectively removed. The handles are cured and hand tooled before winding brooms with fiber. A field-to-fiber design: using regional plants to naturally dye fiber & stalks in-house. Black walnuts from campus and heartwood shavings from Osage Orange branches within the College Forest add the rich color to this broom.