The reading on a small, digital thermometer hanging on a juice vendor's stall is 38 degrees Celsius. It's another scorcher in St Catherine and, here on the Spanish Town Bypass, cars are whizzing by in both directions. The smell of exhaust fumes and grass on a nearby field being seared in the heat make for an uncomfortable atmosphere. The masses have remained indoors but Ras Richard Hudson is hard at work on the bypass and seems untroubled by the heat.

"When yuh doing what yuh love, no weather can trouble you," he laughed.

Ras Richard is one of a group of Rastafarian craftsmen spread across the old capital, who have spent years refining their handiwork and have dedicated their lives to their art. They may have commandeered spots by the side of the road but don't dare call them hustlers.

"Rasta nuh deal wid hustling," Ras Richard bellowed, as he used an icepick to cut through the bristles of a broom he had just finished making.

"This is our life. We take this thing as our art. Some people do painting, other people do sculpting. I am a broom-making artist."

CAN'T DENY PASSION

His proclamation might very well send art connoisseurs into cardiac arrest but it's hard to deny the passion with which he approaches his work.

"People tend to look down on us because we make broom but this is something I study. I look at every broom just like how the artist look at a painting. If it nuh perfect, I nah go sell it," he said.

Ras Richard said he lives in Spanish Town, and, close to 10 years ago, joined with other Rastas in the community to form a band of craftsmen. They call themselves the Artistic Rastas and do everything from making brooms, to crafting colourful hammocks and making metal chairs.

"We spread out all across Spanish Town. We hope di youth dem will really look at us and know dat dem don't have to turn to di gun. Anyone with a pure heart who willing to take di work like an art, free to join us," Ras Richard said.

NO SATISFACTION

The slender Rastaman was once a baker of bread at a Kingston bakery but got no satisfaction from his work.

"A singer will tell yuh dem can't do anyting other than sing because it in dem blood. Well, making broom is like dat fi I."

About a quarter of a mile down the same roadway, Ras Bolton, a tall, soft-spoken middle-ager was putting the final knots on a red, green and black hammock he started making earlier that day. There were five finished hammocks hanging on trees on a small lot where the man lives.

"Each one tek about a day to build. I doing this thing more than 20 years now. Is a Rastaman from Waterhouse teach I, so I have to just keep the tradition going," he said.

"Is about 20 of us who come together and say we going to help each other wid craft. We are artists just like any painter. People can say what dem want but I will tell yuh dat no painter nuh serious bout him work like how I serious bout I hammock dem," he said.

"A Rastaman teach mi dat yuh haffi teck pride in yuh work. And when I done meck all a hammock, nobody nuh prouder than I."