Tin Can School Bus Ornament

These handmade models are made in a small village close to the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo (Tana to the locals). These models, the ornament size and the miniatures, are made from tin, not aluminum. Aluminum cannot be soldered. The cans are found at garbage dumps which professional trash pickers sort through for anything of value. The cans are flattened, cleaned, then sold at the market. Aerosol cans are a popular choice for material. For each model a template is made of all the parts required. This template is used to trace out the part design on the flattened can. Scissors/shears cut each part out. For an order of 100 VW bugs, 100 hoods would be cut out before moving onto the next part. Four hundred wheels would be made, and so on. When all the parts are made, they get molded into shape. So, you will see a stack of 100 curved hoods all “spooned” together. The final step is soldering all the parts together. A windshield is added to the appropriate model. If it has wheels, they spin. If it has a propeller, it spins. These models can have sharp edges, so I do not suggest them for young children. I figure the kid needs to be old enough to know what they are playing with. They are more of a collectable than a heavy use toy.

No two school bus are alike, different cans, different colors, same school bus

Handmade: The parts assembled to make these VW pickups are cut from recycled tin cans using scissors! These parts are then soldered together using an iron heated over a charcoal fire. No electricity or machinery is used in the construction.

• Size: Length-3.5” Width-1.4” Height-1.6”

• Origin: Handmade in a small village near Antananarivo, Madagascar