Morgan Pell’s life would change course after she moved into a rambling fixer-upper in rural Cooper Township in 2017. The hideaway, with its mossy stairs and sweeping deck, marked the beginning of her journey into the world of functional art.
The listing for the house had no pictures. There was a promise of privacy and acreage, but Pell’s first impression of the house was nothing short of “creepy.”
“It was terrifying driving up here for the first time,” says Pell. “(But) uncovering things and seeing some of the beauty in the original build of the house, I was like, ‘I want to add to that. I want to make it my own.’”
Morgan, 34, grew up in southern Michigan and had a range of work experience, from being a waitress and a dog groomer to, most recently, a real estate agent.
Accompanied by her husband, Mark, Pell embraced her new space. Home projects multiplied. Pell wanted to fill her home with durable and artful goods and looked to the surrounding community for guidance and instruction.
She started with the skill she deemed most challenging — blacksmithing — and took an introductory blacksmithing class at Tillers International, a nonprofit in Scotts that offers courses in homesteading skills. In the years following, Pell expanded her range as a maker, picking up stonemasonry, woodworking, linocut making and broom making, among other skills.
Enduring obsession
But it was assembling brooms that became an enduring obsession, says Pell. She saw the craft as a puzzle she was determined to solve. Roughly three years ago, her obsession turned into something more. She invented her own technique of crafting brooms from straw-like strands of broomcorn, a plant native to South Africa that has been used to make brooms for centuries. She dubbed the technique “Mergstyle.”
“Mergstyle brooms are artfully assembled out of dyed (strands of broom) corn so that they depict an image on the cut handle end of the broom,” says Pell.
These intricately crafted images, which depict crisp patterns ranging from rainbows and paw prints to sunset landscapes and moon phases, are created as she builds the broom, as opposed to being painted after assembly. Piece by piece, Pell selects home-dyed broomcorn of varying shapes and sizes and arranges them into a cohesive picture.
Pell estimates she made a hundred Mergstyle prototypes before creating a broom she was proud of. Her initial effort at a yin-and-yang design turned out to be “hardly more than a few contrasting blobs,” she says. Now her home workshop is filled with dozens of successful creations. But the brooms that don’t meet Pell’s standards are still put to functional use.
“There’s one in my truck. There’s one on my husband’s tractor. There’s a few around my shop that haven’t quite made it out yet and probably never will,” says Pell.
Aside from the details of design, the craft of creating each broom is a physically demanding one. For a broom to last, it must be tied tightly with twine. Maintaining the right level of tension on the twine requires significant upper-body strength. Pell wraps twine around a wooden broom winder that she braces with her feet. She lets out slack as needed and then pulls upright with her arms. This physical strain, combined with Pell’s mild allergy to the broomcorn, can make the process particularly arduous.
“When people come to me to learn at a broom-making workshop, that’s usually the biggest hurdle — making them understand that this is going to be a very physical task,” says Pell.
Despite its challenges, the work can be therapeutic, Pell says. Keeping her hands busy helps her process her thoughts. Her love of making functional art is tied up in its meditative quality and its practical use.
“I try to make sure that every single one of my Mergstyle brooms is a functional broom, even though most people don’t want to use them,” says Pell. “That’s a big part of my focus. More so than the images that I’m putting together. … Every broom is functional and is made to last.”
Beautiful, yet functional
In December, Pell launched an online shop, mergwerks.com, following her annual appearance at the Buy Local Art and Gift Fair hosted by the Kalamazoo Nature Center. She plans to expand her online storefront to include her blacksmith goods and her husband’s handmade cutting boards, many of which are made using wood sourced from their property.
“I think if I was making something that wasn’t so functional, like a painting, I would probably get bored with it a little bit faster,” she says.
Amid the privacy of her wooded acreage, Pell has become an accomplished full-time interdisciplinary artist. She’s gone from taking broom-making classes at Tillers to working there as a volunteer and an instructor. This summer she will teach a broom-making class as part of the annual Earthcraft Skillshare Gathering hosted by Tillers.
Perhaps even more significant to her, Pell’s days have taken on a new rhythm. “Making has become part of the everyday normal living out here,” says Pell. “Now if I go a day without making, I feel off, like something’s not quite right.”
