Rarely a moment passes when I’m not thinking about jewelry, sketching a new design, or having an “ah ha!” breakthrough for how to make a new piece of jewelry. Case in point: Last week I remembered seeing a picture of a lovely pair of earrings by artist Beth Rosengard who uses, among other techniques, broom casting. Beth describes this technique as “an old jewelry designer technique in which molten metal is poured over the soaking wet, upturned bristles of a straw broom. The results vary greatly, but generally echo the dripping, columnar shapes of stalactites.”
Following her instructions, together with the excellent step-by-step instructions I found on Ganoskin The Gem and Jewelry World’s Foremost Resource on The Internet, I went off in search of our only broom. A few days later, after multiple replenishings of the water in the basement bathroom sink where I was pre-soaking the broom bristles I had cut off from the big broom, I had to abandon the project because I got swamped with more pressing design projects. For now, I have a small bundle of bound dry broom bristles and a sad and mangled broom standing in the corner. Broom casting might not be taking flight as soon as I would have liked, but at least it has gotten me out of having to sweep the snow off the back porch.
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