Art and Life at Northwind: Broom-making, For the Art of It
Art and craft workshops set at Fort Worden.
PORT TOWNSEND, WA — Growing up in a rural town, young Dan Hawkins wasn’t too impressed by the local craftmaking practices.
As a boy in New Gloucester, Maine—a woodsy community not all that unlike Port Townsend—he’d see members of the Shaker community making their own brooms at village farm-day demonstrations.
“This is kind of lame. I want to get out of here,” he remembers thinking.
Today, Hawkins holds a completely different view. After a decade of learning more about traditional art and craft, he’s a woodworker, broom maker and teacher who moved to Portland, Oregon, in 2021. He’s offering two classes at the nonprofit Northwind Art School in Port Townsend this summer: “Make Your Own Hand Broom” on Sunday, July 19, and “Make Your Own Floor Broom” on Friday, August 21. Details are found at https://northwindart.org under the Classes, Workshops and Camps heading. Both classes will be at Northwind’s Fort Worden State Park campus.
Hawkins, who has worked as an architect and carpenter in Denmark, China and the United States, finds that across many cultures people craft brooms in much the same way, and for similar reasons. These makers consider brooms not only effective for sweeping away debris, but also good for clearing bad energy.
“In [my] workshops I bring a library of reference books, about different broom-making cultures,” Hawkins said, adding he also invites people to share any personal memories they have with brooms.
In classes he teaches around the Pacific Northwest, Hawkins finds participants come in with a variety of inspirations: They may want to craft something to sweep away stagnant energy, or they just need a handsome broom to sweep the porch.
The experience of making brooms in a group is a satisfying one, he added. Hawkins loves the rustling sound of a dozen sweeping heads coming together. Then there's the sorghum fibers' earthy-sweet scent.
In the hand-broom class, participants will have time to make more than one of the small, turkey-wing-style sweepers. In the floor broom workshop, they will learn how to shape the long wooden handle as well as wrap the fibers.
“If you want to bring additional fibers, or beads, or little bones, those can be incorporated into a wrap,” Hawkins added. He’s made brooms with decorative sprigs of lavender and sage, for example.
“Foraged fibers are welcome but not required,” he said. Hawkins noted too that no previous experience is necessary, and all other supplies and tools are provided in his classes.
Northwind Art offers a variety of art and craft classes throughout the summer. They include “Plein Air Woodcut Printmaking” with Charlie Spitzack the weekend of August 1 and 2; “Pacific Northwest Abstract” with Meg Kaczyk on September 12 and 13, and “Fabric Maché Bowls” with Kate Dwyer on September 19. A vivid example of Dwyer’s technique is on view at Northwind’s Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St. in Port Townsend. Titled “Umbrellas,” it’s part of the juried “Northwest Expressions” exhibit. The show runs through August 10; gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays. Details about all of these activities await at https://northwindart.org.
