joysins:

pathofthegreenwitch:

pathofthegreenwitch:

Yay! The straw besom is finished!

I know previously I said it would take 30 minutes from start to finish, but this was my first straw besom, and it took roughly an hour to complete. 

I’ll pass along some tips as I go along…(long post is long, sorry!)

First of all, do not use a handle that is not straight across. If the top part has an angle, or a point, you will run into problems later, like the end cracking when you put the broom together. Also, make sure the handle is not too long, that creates problems because you can’t reach when putting it together.

Combing out the straw grass took about 15-20 minutes. I strongly recommend doing all of your besom work outside, as it creates quite a mess! I honestly just used the cat brush for this, and it worked like a charm! Gather up small bundles in your hand and comb out the straw to remove leafy, and loose bits. 

You’ll want a pail with some water in it to soak the straw in to soften it a bit, and this will also make it easier to work with. I used long, plastic zip-ties, twine, scissors, and a pail with some water. (I didn’t use the roll of green plastic covered wire, I just didn’t end up needing it!)

Next, divide your straw into two nice bundles, and while holding them, tap them onto a flat surface, like a tabletop to even them out. You want all the bristles to be flush on the bottom before tying them up.

Slide a zip tie under your bundle of straw. 

And pull that baby TIGHT!

Now do that a few more times! TIGHT! Until you just can’t get the ties any tighter! 

Once I started putting the besom together, I found I really didn’t need those last two. The handle just wasn’t going on, and the bundle was TOO tight at that point, so I had to cut them last minute. 

At this point, if you wanted to simply use the bundle as it is, it would make a nice hand-held besom. You could just cut the ties close to the end, but not cutting the ties away. You leave them in place and cover them up. Just cut the ends off. 

You hand-held besom would look like this…(minus the plastic ends, and nice photobomb by the cat brush in this one)

Almost to the end now! Top part of the handle will be on the ground, and while standing up, you want to take your bundle and try to get it centred over the pointy end of the handle. 

Sorry, grainy photo. It’s hard to hold onto a besom and a phone camera at the same time. 

With one hand firmly on the bundle, and the other on the handle, legs apart, pound the handle on the ground, into the centre of the bundle, using a straight up and down spear-like motion. You’ll need to do that several times, until the bundle is firmly in place and shows zero signs of moving. This is where it is important to have a handle that is even and not on an angle. All this pounding on the ground will likely result in a broken handle, and a very sad Witch. 

If you have done everything reasonably according to plan, your besom it assembled, and you can finish it off by wrapping twine over the ties to hide them. 

In the end, it should look something like this…

Now you could leave it at that, of take the scissors and give the bristles a little haircut, like I did. It’s your besom, it’s up to you!

I really wanted a truly witchy looking broom, and I accomplished that with this besom. Now I just need to bless it.

If you’ve been following me for a while, or read my posts, you’ll know that I like a hands on approach to my craft, and feel it’s important to show others how with a  little effort, you can honestly make your own items. That’s why this post is so long, so that you can see the steps involved, and that it’s really not that hard to do. All the supplies I had on hand already, so the cost to me was $0.00, except for the time to gather the grass, handle and to assemble it. Something like 5 hours. So when you see a besom and wonder why they are pricey, you know that at least 4 or 5 hours went into making that besom. If you need supplies, hit up Dollarama (or your local dollar store) for twine and zip-ties. 

When I talked about straw-grass, it’s any kind of tall, straw-like grass that has gone to seed at the top. Wheat grass, or any tall grass similar to this…

It should have stalks that feel just like those on a corn-broom. 

This was the fourth besom I have made, and just love making them!

I hope I’ve managed to pass along some helpful points on making a besom, and wish you all the best on your journey! 

Posting again, for new followers, or in case you missed it earlier.

A more detailed how to on making Besom’s