These intricate wall pieces are made from recycled oil drums in Croix des Bouquets, Haiti.
Founded in 1990 by a multinational group of young entrepreneurs, Caribbean Craft—formerly known as Drexco—promotes employment in Haiti by training unskilled - but often highly gifted - craftspeople, and by assisting the independent artisans through the introduction of new designs and new market outlets. Unemployment in Haiti, the poorest country of the American hemisphere, is variously estimated at between 60 and 80%.
The organization has gone through rough times during the past years, marked by political troubles and economic difficulties including a 3-year long embargo on all Haitian exports. Drexco saw in 1997 its premises totally ransacked and then destroyed during gang violence. Relocated in a higher-security industrial park, the organization currently employs 400 artisans either as salaried employees or outside contractors, with roughly equal numbers of men and women.
Caribbean Craft’s specialty is the brightly colored, artistically hand-painted home décor objects, which can be purely decorative, such as wall hangings , or consist of objects useful in the home, like switch plates and magnets. The natural artistic talents of the Haitians are well known, and many of these hand-painted pieces are truly works of art.
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