As a child, Janice “Honey” Warner-Tucker was fascinated with art and colours. To this day, she exhibits an unbridled exuberance when talking about the days when she would visit her Aunt Elsie on Curving Avenue, who would allow her to put ribbons and other small adornments on the Gombey costumes she was tailoring.
She beams with pride when telling these stories, recalling how she would tell all her friends about her hand in helping make the costumes, and how these tales made her feel “Sharp!”
A few generations later, and this amazing woman is still – decidedly – “Sharp!” Adamant that her gift for designing and making her Gombey-related crafts was handed down to her from God directly, she is still amazed that she was successful in her attempt to miniaturise Bermuda Gombey designs by producing those famous Gombey dolls we see in all the souvenir shops today.
PRECOCIOUS TALENT
Humble to a fault, Mrs Warner-Tucker exudes a gratefulness that makes her story even more adorable. Now an elder statesman of the Gombey art tradition, Mrs Warner-Tucker expresses her narrative in a way that makes you wish you were there with her as she navigated through the history of Bermuda’s Gombey movement. Hers is a legacy well worth studying.
Recalling the story of when she finally convinced her mother that she could help make her brothers’ Gombey costumes, Mrs Warner-Tucker is ebullient.
“My mother was making costumes for one of my brothers, and I asked Momma to let me help her, and Momma said, ‘Don’t you dare interfere with my work. You won’t be messing up my work!’
“But I saw Momma doing all this work, and she was tired. Well, Momma went sleep one evening, and I knew I could finish that costume off. And I wanted to put a little touch to it, you know.
“Temptation: I took a chance. When Momma woke up the next day and saw that costume, and she saw that it was completed, she came in the front room – we were all sitting off in the front room, right. ‘Who interfered with my work?’
“Momma was not looking at none of the other girls. She was looking directly at me. Nobody answered. ‘I know you all hear me. Who interfered with my work?!’
“Then nobody wouldn’t answer, so she said, ‘Janice, I know it was you. You wouldn’t answer, but I know it’s you.’ She said, ‘But guess what – I’m so proud of you!’
“With the fright, and with the joy – I bawled my eyes out! I thought Momma was so angry at me – but guess what, she said, ‘From now on, I’m finished – you dress your brothers and your father!’ She passed the baton on to me, and that excited me more because then I was able to do my own thing, you know.”
These are the kind of heart-warming vignettes that make this tradition bearer’s story so relatable and cement her status as a vital Bermudian folk hero.
BURGEONING SKILLS
It wouldn’t be long before Mrs Warner-Tucker became a master costume maker, and her efforts started to expand to encompass Gombey merchandising, a heretofore uncharted market. This novel endeavour saw her strike a deal with a local cake maker for dolls that she could dress in our unique Gombey style.
“I must’ve been in my 30s, and I was living on the bottom road in Middle Town. I had one of Mr Mello – from Mello’s Bakery round Curving Avenue – I had one of those little dolls that he put on the wedding cakes. So, I took that little doll, and I said, ‘Let me see how this doll would look if I dress it as a Gombey.’
“Well, I sat down and I dressed that little doll, and it looked sharp!”
ROARING TRADE
Of course, the task of creating an iconic Bermudian souvenir art piece was not easy. The process was painstaking and meticulous, but the designs have become renowned rudiments of Bermuda’s Gombey legacy.
“I took that little Gombey and I ran up to the bakery and I showed it to Mr Mello, and I said, ‘Mr Mello, if I get some money would you sell me some dolls?’ And he gave me some, because he liked what he saw. I think he gave me about six.
“I did them up, and they went! People bought them just like that! I went to him again and he sold me about a dozen. Then I was going to him so much, he said, ‘Listen, these are for my cakes.’ He told me to go to Toys ‘N’ Stuff and get my own dolls. He told me, ‘I can’t sell you no more of my dolls, these are for my cakes.’ I was taking all his dolls!”
As with most stories around the geneses of folk-art forms, there is humour here – and much nostalgic laughter. Mrs Warner-Tucker delivers a fully realised comedy set when she relates these valuable stories, which also communicates an unwavering passion and love for the art that has defined her life.
ICONIC
She recalls many commissioned pieces over the years, and beams with pride when she speaks on the public reception of her seminal art pieces. “Yes, my dolls – up until today, people just love them, and the more I work with them, the more authentic they become.”
Now in her 80s, Mrs Warner-Tucker never hesitates to give thanks to God for the blessings her unique talents have afforded her throughout her life. She is a formidable figure in the history of Bermuda’s Gombey art tradition: an unassuming local folk artist who has pieces of her art in homes throughout the globe.
Mrs Warner-Tucker’s Gombey costume designs are iconic, and her Gombey dolls are exquisite pieces of collectable, unique handmade folk art. Hers is a truly grassroots folk tradition, the kind of historically charged art form that effortlessly communicates the spirit of resistance that the Gombey dance itself was originally designed to shout from the mountaintops.
Let’s celebrate this art. Let’s celebrate this lady.
