Broomcorn angels
[Customers] want work that is
different, work with character
that is obviously professionally
handcrafted. Not too folksy, not too witchy. Newton teaching at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts on Deer Isle, Maine In reflecting on his years in the craft, Newton says he’s “made and sold brooms at a history-based event with more than 350,000 people in attendance, and I’ve sold my brooms out of my truck at a farmers market with only a half dozen other sellers. I’ve made more than 20,000 long brooms and God knows how many smalls. I’ve been slowly working on a book detailing the history of broom making in North America prior to 1790. That’s a magical year you know. That’s when broom making went from being a barn craft done by slaves and Native Americans, to being grown at scale by wealthy white farmers. There is very little talk of the history of American broom making before it became profitable. There are as many stories about broom making as there are broom makers.”
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Newton’s store in Nashville, Tennessee