Gallery
Sweeping Stories: Early Settlers Series 1884-1926
Grove No. 1884
1. Early Settlers Series 1884-1926
6.5” x 16.5”
Description: Natural and dyed green shades broomcorn sculptural woven whisk with blown glass bead detail.
Inspiration: In 1884, Sixty-seven German immigrants, arrived to begin a colony . By-laws were established, and the name Olivenhain, a composite of two German words that translates to olive-grove, was chosen.
Bumann's Harvest
2. Early Settlers Series 1884-1926
5” x 13”
Description: Natural and dyed green shades broomcorn streaks and gauntlet bronze wrapping.
Inspiration: In 1884 each Olivenhain colonist was entitled to five cultivated acres. Two years later Herman Bumann homesteaded 160 and built a ranch that outlived nearly all of them. Ten acres remain, on both the California and National Registers.
A harvest is not everything a field produced. It is what got gathered and kept.
Olive & Grain
3. Early Settlers Series 1884-1926
5” x 13”
Description: Natural and dyed green shades broomcorn streaks and gauntlet bronze wrapping.
Inspiration: Olivenhain is German for olive grove. The olives never made the colony's fortune. Grain did.
This hand-dyed mini whisk keeps both names: what they hoped for, and what fed them.
Olivenhain Hall
4. Early Settlers Series 1884-1926
7”x 19”
Description: Natural and dyed green shaded broomcorn woven whisk with copper wire & leather detail.
Inspiration: Olivenhain is German for olive grove, the name families gave a settlement in 1884. The hall they built is still standing.
A meeting hall and a broom are the same kind of object. Both were built by hand for daily use, and both are still here because someone kept picking them up.
Native Plants
5. Early Settlers Series 1884-1926
9.5” x 15”
Description: Natural and dyed green shaded broomcorn Turkey wing woven whisk.
Inspiration: Encinitas has been losing its plant communities faster than its buildings. The city and the San Diego Botanic Garden run annual volunteer work pulling invasive species and putting natives back, tied to Arbor Day and Tree City USA.
Broomcorn is a cultivated grass, not a native one. This whisk is an argument about what we choose to keep growing.
Orpheus 3000
6. Early Settlers Series 1884-1926
5.5” x 4’6”
Description: Natural & dyed green shaded besom broom with natural stick handle. Fun flyer powered by imagination.
Inspiration: Encinitas was founded by different sets of people. Inland, German families farmed. On the coast, creative English settlers named their streets for Greek gods. Orpheus is a historical street in the coastal neighborhood.
This besom is the flying kind from magical stories. It sweeps. It is also, an invitation to adventure.
Encinitas 2026 Exhibition
Toyton & Tide
7. Ecke Era Series 1923-1991
6.5” x 13”
Description: Red dyed broomcorn whisk
with leather and cord detail.
Inspiration: California's native “evergreen shrub famous for its bright red winter "Christmas berry”; Toyton is also known as California holly.
Drama at Eagle Rock
8. Ecke Era Series 1923-1991
8” x 20”
Description: Green variegated dyed broomcorn, sculptural woven & stitched whisk with blown glass bead and leather detail.
Inspiration: Albert Ecke started cultivating poinsettias in Eagle Rock (Los Angeles) in 1909. In 1923 Paul and Magdalena Ecke were pushed out of the Hollywood by the movie industry and built a 945-acre farm in Encinitas.
Ecke’s Era (Poinsettia’s Version)
9. Ecke Era Series 1923-1991
6” x 18”
Description: Natural, red and green dyed broomcorn whisk with variegated string and leather strap/ flower detail.
Inspiration: At its peak the Ecke ranch that included 40 acres , sold 90% of the world's poinsettias each year. The shift to greenhouse production in the 1960s included more than 400 workers that helped make Encinitas the "Flower Capital of the World."
Euphorbia
10. Ecke Era Series 1923-1991
7” x 18”
Description: Red dyed broomcorn whisk with woven handle and leather poinsettia flower detail.
Inspiration: Poinsettia's botanical name, and the species epithet translates as "most beautiful."
Magdalena
11. Ecke Era Series 1923-1991
6.5” x 13”
Description: Sculptural woven, braided and stitched sweeper on sanded and stained wood handle. Natural, red and pink dyed broomcorn with leather detail.
Inspiration: Magdalena immigrated to the USA as a child. She assisted with the business and traveled extensively. In her later years, she was a volunteer for an orphanage in Tijuana and during the holidays she delieverd pointsettias to military hospitals.
Saxony Gift
12. Ecke Era Series 1923-1991
8” x 10”
Description: Natural, red and green dyed broomcorn turkey wing whisk with blown glass bead detail.
Inspiration: In 1969 the Ecke family made their first community donation of acreage from the Encinitas Farm. Those first 5 acres on Saxony later became the home of the YMCA, a center of communityt hat still exists today.