Saturday, March 7 - Cut Metal Artisans in Croix des Bouquets with CAH

Saturday morning we enjoyed a breakfast of oatmeal and bananas before boarding our bus and driving out to Croix des Bouquets with Gisele from CAH. We visited a number of workshops that have supplied CAH and Ten Thousand Villages over the past 20 plus years.

Our first stop was the workshop of Jhonson Augustin where we saw metal being 'cut' by hand with hammer and chisel.

It takes a steady hand and accurate hammer blows to cut out the metal patterns.

Next stop was Le Palmiere workshop run by J. Rony Gas. Rony does all the designing and draws the patterns with chalk on the metal sheets.

Everyone liked Rony's peacock mirror.

Rony's bicycle rider.

Gisele and Rony have worked together for a number of years and are good friends. Gisele helped him to get some substantial orders from Macy's in the last couple of years.

One of the workshops that we quickly ducked into had some interesting and fantastical creations. Bits and pieces from everywhere.

Cut metal has become a popular and relatively successful business and improvements to the community are being made. For example, lamposts with cut metal designs and solar power are sprouting along the street.

Ajoupa's shop advertises by putting large painted metal animals on display along the street. 

Ajoupa's shop front.

Kids enjoy pushing each other down the street in their wheelbarrow when they are not loading it up with raw materials for their family's metal work shop.  

Charlie found a Texas Longhorn to take back to the University of Texas in Austin, where he is studying.

Giraffe peering over the wall at Ajoupa's shop.

Life size donkey at Ajoupa's.

Donkey close-up.

A collection of painted metal pieces in Ajoupa's shop. 

Hanging out with Ajoupa (far right) and his metal elephant right across the street from his shop. 

We also visited Derrosiers Etoiles Guinan, the workshop run by Pierre Richard Derrosiers. He had a huge array of colorful and creative pieces like this rooster with voudou drum.

Pierre's Haitian Noah's ark.

Pierre's 'school of fish'.

Hammering out a new piece at Pierre's workshop.

Fantastical seahorse mermaid at Pierre's shop.

Downtown Croix des Bouquets is colorful and entertaining.

Line-up of painted metal animals along the street.

Kevin joined this little crowd watching a soccer match on the sidewalk TV.

The last workshop we visited belonged to Medard, one of the first metal artisans to work with Gisele at CAH.

Jean bought this piece from Medard.

I met Medard on my first visit to Haiti in 1991. It was great to meet him again and see that he has been relatively successful in his one man workshop. 

Medard still makes a painted version of the first bicycle rider with kids that I bought back in 1991 - mine is not painted.

Kevin bought this piece from Medard. It was made from the lid of an oil drum, you can see the threaded drum hole at the bottom of the cut out metal plant.

Medard at the front gate of his workshop.

Before leaving Croix des Bouquets, we stopped at Jhonson's workshop and I purchased this 'fruit tree' from a smiling Jhonson.

On our way to lunch we spied this elaborately painted tap-tap (bus). 

Jean was sporting the earring she bought at the CAH shop yesterday. 

We drove high up the mountain behind Port-au-Prince and found these beautiful hibiscus at the lookout where we stopped. 

View of Port-au-Prince from the lookout.

We drove down the hill to Petionville where we enjoyed dinner at a local restaurant - fish and goat were the specialities that we tried. Then further down the hill we went to the MCC Guesthouse where we all showered and crashed.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we will drive out to Jacmel for a relaxing day enjoying the sights and even getting in some swimming in the ocean. Gisele is also trying to arrange for us to meet some painted wood and papier-mache artisans. Sounds like fun.