Kristen Lukach

Kristen Lukach

In the midst of the pandemic, I found myself desperately needing to slow down, log-off and reconnect with my own two hands. As a year-round resident of Salem, Massachusetts, broom making seemed like a natural hobby to take up. I bought my first wood carving knife and a few pounds of craft broom corn and (through a lot of trial and error) taught myself how to make a cobweb broom.

The thing that I have come to love the most about broom making is how intertwined with the seasons each process is; the dry heat of the fireplace in the winter is ideal for drying wet-tied brooms. The spring is a perfect time planting broomcorn seed and for hand-dying basket reed that will be laid out in the sun to cure. During the humidity of the summer is when I do the majority of my broom handle carving and with the autumn comes another broom corn harvest, pumpkins and holiday markets.

When I’m not making brooms, I am a full-time social worker, mountain biker, (aspiring) spoon carver who uses a lot of Band-Aids, and mom to three ferocious cats.