Mimi's Story:

It all began over 40 years ago in the family room of Mimi’s California home.

Educated in the “Bauernmalerei” technique of peasant painting and abetted by further studies in Switzerland, Mimi combined her style and talent to design quaint wood pieces using a small band saw, painting them in her unique fashion to decorate her home.

Soon friends and friends of friends induced her to “create a few” for their pleasure. These same friends, and of course her family, who recognized her innate talent, artistic capabilities and potential, encouraged her to take a small booth at the Los Angeles wholesale Gift Show to exhibit her works.

An immediate and smashing success, she was approached by one of the country’s largest giftware representatives who offered to mass produce her designs in the Far East and pay her a royalty. Rather than take that route, an impersonal and distant entrance into the “commercial” business world she returned to Haiti, where she had previously spent a year establishing an orphanage. During that time in Haiti, she had determined that she wanted to do something more to help the economic situation of the people in this beautiful but poor country.

Familiar with the country and its abundance of native talent, Mimi moved to Haiti in 1981 and converted an old Victorian, bougainvillea covered, gingerbread house into her home and a production area. She interviewed dozens of applicants and hired several who understood and followed her intricate wooden designs. Having no prior business experience, as up until this time she was a housewife and mother of 7 children, she educated herself in the wild arena of purchasing local raw materials, paint, brushes, and the morass of paperwork, documentation, licenses, and shipping procedures. Filled with trepidation….a new business in a beautiful mysterious country, she began to produce, paint, pack, and ship her works to a few companies in the United States. Her immediate acceptance and success with wood art gave birth to another venture.

Metal sculptured art began in Haiti in the early 1940's, depicting images native to the country in the natural metal. Mimi recognized the versatility and competence of the metal artists and after lengthy deliberation she decided to try a new medium and developed several designs to be executed in metal and then painted.

Visiting the “hub” of metal artisans, Croix des Bouquets, north of Port-au-Prince, where they cut native sculptures of voodoo designs, she studied the metal men’s methods with recycled steel drums which they cleaned, halved, and beat into flat sheets…all by hand. At her drawing board she developed several intricate designs that she felt would be appreciated by the American and European markets. She took them to Croix des Bouquets and watched the metal artists approach what was a completely new concept, Mimi’s. She personally controlled the preparations of the raw metal, superimposed her patterns and stood back while metal workers, using large hammers and a variety of chisels, by hand, carefully carved and cut each piece. Mimi, with critical eyes and artistic sense, insisted, in her faulting Creole, that every sculpture be hammered until it had “body and shape”….a third dimension. The artisans were proud, pleased, and amazed that this American lady could enter their ancient world of art and teach them new skills. Satisfied with the initial execution of her designs, Mimi took the finished metal pieces to her Gingerbread workshop and under the watchful eyes of her aides/students she painted each piece. This was a whole new concept, as up until this time, the primitive metal art created in Haiti had not been painted. Mimi has given birth to a new world of art reproduced in hand sculptured metal…a world of charming delicate flowers and floral arrangements, exotic birds, tropical fruits, barnyard animals…gay Christmas, Easter, and Halloween pieces…decorative, unique, lasting, all ready for display and use throughout the home.

In addition to the hand painted metal decorative items, traditional Haitian art is produced, using recycled steel drums and hammering them into unique metal wall hangings.

Attempts have been made to copy Mimi’s style without success. Even the untutored eye will discern the obvious differences in workmanship and quality. There is only one Mimi Original.

Quality inspectors, judiciously trained, review each work prior to shipping.

An international community of shops in North America, the Caribbean, and Europe all recognize her unique products. They are truly treated and projected as “Collectors Items”, as each is meticulously scrutinized before being sold, assuring the owner of’ an original Mimi product.

Mimi's home is in Port au Prince, Haiti where all of her hand giftware work is executed at an adjoining workshop.