![]() ![]() You'll need about 150 strands to cover the broom. ![]() Willow or other types of thin wicker would be ideal as it is round, long and a good thickness. I found them in a shop for £2.50 each with bristles 700mm in length which is perfect for my needs. The bristles themselves are actually from an Asian-style broom consisting of reeds or grass bound together. Layering up the bristles is a long and lengthy task. Your broom will be a lovely dark colour and look great as a walking stick if you wanted to stop now. If it dries and you run the brush over again, it will become darker with successive coats, so be careful. I mixed up some French Enamel Varnish (FEV) to the right shade and brushed it on swiftly as one coat. If you can find a mahogany wood varnish, that is good too as it adds a lovely shine to the wood but takes days to dry and is difficult to apply evenly. So stain the wood with a mahogany wood stain. My piece of pine is very light in colour, the Nimbus 2000 is mahogany. Clean the wood with a slightly damp cloth to remove all debris and allow to dry. Finish it with some 240 grit paper for a nice smooth finish. And wear some goggles, as the dust goes everywhere. Then crack out an electric sander with some 60 or 80 grit paper and get shaping the wood so that it is nice and round and smooth. If you don't have a router, you could use a jack plane for the more traditional feel. If that sounds like you, head to Goodwill for costume supplies where your purchase allows Goodwill organizations to help people who are facing challenges to finding employment overcome their hardships and achieve independence through the power of work.Put on a dust mask, then take off the corners with a radius router bit to save on sanding later. With my broomstick finished, now I’ll be tracking down a cape and corset to round out the rest of my costume.īy the way, I’m still looking for a couple of volunteers to the be Winifred and Sarah to my Mary Sanderson. I felt like the straight edge at the top of my bristles was a little too tidy for my witch’s broom, so I went to work trimming and bending the straw randomly to show some use.Īnd there you have it! Bring that baby outside and give it a test drive around the neighborhood to get yourself ready for Halloween. A satin or velvet ribbon would look lovely, too, if “classy witch” is more what you’re going for. This was partially done as an extra way to hold everything together, but it’s also visually breaks up the look of the burlap. I wrapped all of the ugly parts (the leftover Styrofoam, the stem wire, and the ends of the twigs) tightly with a piece of burlap hot gluing it all the way up its seam. You could even add a little glitter here, too, if that’s your style! For the longer pieces, you can tuck them up under the first stem wire that attaches the broom stick. Step 3: Add a little whimsy! Carefully tuck foraged twigs, hay, and feathers into the broom head and dab on a little hot glue in a well-hidden place to help them stay. If you are using a regular broom and want to add a little extra personality to the handle, you could try sanding off any finish or adding big globs of hot glue to look like knots in the wood then spray painting the whole handle so it looks uniform. Step four will further secure the two pieces. ![]() My bristles were brittle and probably wouldn’t have handled that well, so I just set the broom head on top of the stick then wrapped it tightly. To attach it, carefully nestle it down inside the bristles of the broom (if that’s possible to do without damaging the straw) then wrap it several times with stem wire. Look for something gnarled or knobby for a wicked witchy feel. It was perfect! Any old stick would work, though. I knew I wanted a truly rustic look and out near my shed I spotted a walking stick that my husband had peeled the bark off of to use on a hike. I liked that the broom I decided on was short enough for me to add my own handle. If your broom already has a long handle, you could certainly leave it as is. There were a few little pieces of the Styrofoam head and the tissue around it that I couldn’t get off, but the burlap binding I added later covered it right up. I had to remove all of the tissue paper and ribbon which came off fairly easily. An elimination spell should work here, but so would some good old fashioned scissors. Step 1: Remove any non-magical bits on your thrifted broom base. Once I had that for the foundation piece, I hit the hills for some twigs and Earthy remnants to make it look authentically historical. This little witch was probably super cute when it was first made, but man oh man did it need some love by the time I stumbled upon it. As I browsed through Goodwill’s aisles, I actually found a few different harvest-style decorative pieces that would have worked as the bristles of my witch’s broom, but I decided to choose the one that looked the most dated. ![]()
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