Deborah Needleman on the Humble Joys of Making Baskets and Brooms

If life is a garden, the writer, editor, and craftsperson Deborah Needleman certainly knows how to dig and cultivate it. Early in her career, she followed a nonlinear path in the media industry that was, for the better part of a decade, slow and steady—and then, upon launching the home design bible Domino in 2004, meteoric. Over the next dozen years, Needleman rose to become one of the magazine world’s most in-demand editors, serving as the editor-in-chief of both WSJ. Magazine and T: The New York Times Style Magazine. Across this work, her deep appreciation for beauty, craft, gardening and nature, and unfussy, richly layered interiors shined through. By the end of 2016, though, Needleman decided that she had had enough of the whirlwind hustle of the magazine business. She sought a way to work with her hands, not just her head.

So she slowed down—way down—and turned to the meditative acts of gardening and craft. She headed to the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina, where she took an introductory broom-making course. Soon, she began producing a limited-edition “Garden Tea” of herbs such as chamomile, lemon balm, and mint. And she kept writing: Throughout 2017 and 2018, Needleman traveled the world, studying local crafts for the T column “Material Culture.” In time, she began to work more consistently with her hands, establishing a humble craft practice, primarily focused around basketry, that she continues to build upon today.

On this episode, Needleman talks with Spencer about the pleasures of producing objects from modest materials, what her current craft endeavors have in common with magazine-making, and the deep inherent value of a patina.

Special thanks to our Season 5 sponsor, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts.

Show notes:

• Full transcript
• [07:52] The December 4, 2016, issue of T: The New York Times Style Magazine
• [11:23] “For the Love of Italy”
• [16:21] Deborah Needleman’s home in upstate New York
• [18:44] “Long-Stemmed Neuroses”
• [20:33] “The Anti-Martha”
• [22:22] Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
• [25:23] Piet Oudolf
• [37:15] “Lessons in the Humble Art of Broom-Making”
• [41:59] Deborah Needleman’s Side chair
• [47:19] John C. Campbell Folk School