FOR this family, one skill has been passed down through three generations. It’s the tale of two fathers and a passion for craft, which began decades ago when the now 47-year-old Henry Morris was at the receiving end.

He learnt the art of craftsmanship from his father, the late Ivan Morris. The elder Morris had a craft shop in Port Antonio, Portland, where he would involve Henry in his day-to-day creations.

When Ivan died, Henry took over the business and prolonged the cycle. He started teaching his teenaged sons the ways of the craft, especially because it, he said, is so profitable in today’s society.

“A yah suh me born and grow. My fada did own the place and he died, so a me now directly a run the business. Me learn the trade from him. Me a do dis from me a baby. Me born ina dis. Me born ina the craft,” a proud Morris told the Jamaica Observer.

“Wi teach the likkle juvenile dem too. A lot a dem deh here. Wi teach all a the children dem. Wi train dem and wi tek in people. If smaddy wah learn the stuff, dem come. We do it fi free, but if dem wah pay wi, dem pay wi. If yuh feel like lef a ting, yuh lef a ting. Or if yuh wah buy something, yuh buy something.”

Pointing to the chalk-white shop, which is crowded with endless artistic creations, some of which are decades old, Morris said his father instilled in him a desire to make something out of anything.

“Wi try fi mek every little thing from nothing. Wi pick up the scraps dem and mek things – wi invent stuff. Wi do like everything here suh. It’s a skill corner. We make everything,” he said, noting that different creations demand different timespans for completion.

“It all depends. Sometimes it guh fast and sometime it guh slow. It depends on what yuh want fi mek. Mi can make wrap things fast or paintings.”

And Morris takes great pride in knowing that at the heart of all his creations there are natural elements with meanings behind them.

“The stones in the chains I make come from the crystal ball. The natural crystal ball [has] natural power. Wi find them out ina the sea,” he said.

There’s also a goatskin bag and a Zulu mask – all made from authentic materials.

“Dis a the real goatskin. Wi nuh kill animal, but wi tek the trash and mek things because wi love the animal,” Morris said of the goatskin bag. As for the Zulu mask, “The locs mek from the sea sponge. Wi have it a long time. This mek from mi about 10-year-old and mi keep adding to it. The horn dem a cow horn, the eye dem mek outa stone, and inside a cardboard. Outside a fibre glass. Wi mek it from the masquerade. When mi likkle bit, one a di time mi use to fraid a dem, but mi get fi like it,” he added.

“I have shot cup, Jamaican rum bottle, a raft, stone fish. It come from the sea… it natural. We do the natural things. We don’t work with fake thing. I make candleholder from putty, too.”

And, for Morris, a major plus is that his passion pays.

“Wi do everybody still, enuh. Wi make fi Jamaican, and you notice that Jamaicans a take on to the natural stuff now. Dem mostly a cut out the gold and dem ting deh and a start fi wear the natural stuff like the Jamaican stones. Dem marketable. People buy dem. People always a wear dem,” he said.