How do I make a curly brace?

I would like to make a curly brace, to indicate that something is
related.
In LaTeX it would be an \overbrace .

My problem is that I do not know how. I can make one using { and } in
some font and size, but I would like one that I can manipulate in any
direction, without the thickness increasing/decreasing.

While I'm at it, I could also use one that denotes a length of
something, like a horizontal line with two short vertical lines at
each end.

Thanks!