Redmond Philbert handwork

Robert Sheckler is a primarily self-taught broom maker living and working in Yarmouth, Maine. His work focuses on interpreting a traditional heritage craft through a contemporary lens, exploring color, material, and technique to create modern brooms and brushes. Guided by a bias toward innovation and a strong interest in sustainability, Robert often experiments with non-traditional styles, tying techniques that allow weaker natural fiber cords to be used effectively, and the incorporation of found and thrifted objects in his work.

The contemporary style of Robert's work is in conversation with the simple, traditional hand tools used in its creation. Tension is generated by wrapping cord from a wooden dowel, and brooms are held for stitching with a basic clamp. By focusing on process simplicity, Robert has made space to focus on experimentation with form and material. As utilitarian domestic objects, and often unattractive plastic imports, brooms and brushes are rarely treated with joy or reverence.  Robert’s synthesis of a colorful but clean sensibility with a traditional–and rarely seen–handcraft highlights the value of sweeping as a practice and the value of a handmade, natural fiber object over the more common synthetic alternatives.