The Caribbean Wax Museum

The Caribbean Wax Museum is home to over seventy full-size figures representing the heroes, leaders, athletes, musicians, and revolutionary figures of Barbados, the wider Caribbean, and Latin America. Despite the name, the figures are made from silicone rubber and resin, not wax: a process developed entirely by the museum’s two founders, artists Arthur Edwards and Frances Ross, who build each figure by hand.

Arthur sculpts the likeness and casts the face; Frances paints the skin and inserts each hair individually with a sewing needle. A single figure takes around four months to complete. The level of detail is evident up close: eyes made of glossed resin, skin tones mixed and applied section by section, hairlines reproduced from photographs.

The collection spans cricketers Sir Garfield Sobers and Brian Lara, sprinters Usain Bolt and Obadele Thompson, Errol Barrow (Barbados’s first Prime Minister), Olaudah Equiano, William Wilberforce, Simon Bolivar, Bob Marley, Che Guevara, calypsonians the Merrymen and Mighty Gabby, soca artist Alison Hinds, and many more. Figures come with placards detailing their stories but Frances covers a lot more on the guided tour and is happy to answer questions in depth.

Art and Frances also work on commission. Their figures can be found at the Exchange Museum and Cricket Legends Museum in Bridgetown, and bronze work from the studio stands at Heroes’ Square and Freedom Park.