Aluminium Pot Workshop

Madagascar


The grimy and utterly fascinating aluminium pot workshops are all gathered in one small area behind the market. The area is filled with small workshops and superheated brick kilns around which soot-coated men bash and pound metal sheets and pour molten metal into moulds without even the merest hint of a nod to health- and safety-precautions. After a visit here, you'll never again think you've just had a tough day in the office!

The metal used to manufacture the pots is scavenged from car parts etc. It is melted in furnaces and then poured in handmade moulds of very fine laterite and coal powder. The workers are incredibly dexterous and fast: one team of two can produce up to 20 pots a day. Outside the workshops, various small pieces of metal artwork are for sale. It's hard to believe that such beauty can emerge from those bubbling cauldrons.