My mom, when she’s not channeling Thelma, spends a fair amount of time making santos to bless people’s homes. For those of you who aren’t familiar with santos, they are paintings of saints to whom one may petition for divine intervention. For instance, I have a San Isidro on my wall, who is the patron saint of farmers.

When I visit, one of my regular jobs is to lubricate her tin brake.

It went umpteen years without being lubed and then fell apart. I put it back together and have made sure it gets regular care. That machine cuts a lotta tin!

Above the machine my mom pasted up a San José, since my dad used to maintain her tools.

She buys galvanized flashing in rolls of different widths at her local hardware store. She put me to work cutting the roll down to size.

After the tin is cut into a rectangle, she traces a semicircle along the top with a jig (a completed santo) and cut along the inscribed line with tin shears. Having cut tin for construction projects, I could handle this part, so cut about 20 tins to spec.

After trimming, a design is hammered around the edge with a punch designed for this task. Doing this tap tap tap part really made me feel like a santo elf!

No photos of me tapping away, but this is what the setup looks like.

I also didn’t get photos of her soldering hangers on the backs or gluing images (her artwork) on the tins, but this is the finished product.

I also planted a couple of tomatoes and did a few other maintenance projects around the house.

I work for lattes!!! Best elf gig around.