Saba Profile: The Little Green Shop

Coming up with clever blogpost taglines that are loosely tied to the subject matter at hand is hard brain work, folks. Ahem…I think a Caesar Salad–hold the croutons–is in order.

Marie Petit–yeah, that’s really her name–is a free spirit born in Normandy, France, grew up traveling Europe and the world, met her then partner now hubbie Bob from the UK, who was her dive instructor. You might recall Bob from an earlier local profile of the Sunday backgammon players. In any case, Marie also became a dive instructor which led her and Bob to Saba seven years ago. After a back injury a couple years back, Marie searched her Gallic soul for something that would fulfill her creative passions (Shes also a first class chef). The signs were there, though, as Marie met and displayed her wares to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands on a trip to Saba in 2011. This manifested itself into an arts and crafts pursuit that became The Little Green Shop, which opened this past July.

As she had no specific background or training in crafting or jewelry, Marie dived headfirst into the creative abyss; she utilizes seeds, plants, porcelain, driftwood, and other items folks bring her from around the island, an army of makeshift needles, hammers, soldering irons, crimps, and other tools that Bob brings in to whip up her objet d’art du jour. It’s the first time I’ve really seen a crafting/jeweler at work on a daily basis, and it reminds me of my own music and writing process; long sojourns and lots of time down paths that ultimately end up getting discarded because they’re just not quite right. Other ephemeral days are creativity volcanoes; everything that comes out of Marie’s pounding, twisting, stamping, and soldering on such days are gems…sometimes literally 😉

I took longer than usual to create the images that I thought captured the free roaming spirit and clever artistic details of Marie and The Little Green Shop; for such a tiny store in the corner, there’s a lot going on here with this hardworking expat who’s making a stamp in her own way in Saba’s day to day art and culture.