In Singapore there is a man who hand makes "dragon" joss sticks that are burned in Buddhist and Taoist ceremonies. These incense sticks are made from ground up bark from wild cinnamon trees.
Typically the incense mixture is molded onto poles to be burned during ceremonies. Over the years he started carving the incense with symbols appropriate for the ceremony. Adding paint for some color these became decorative art that was burned to noting.
Amos Tay now runs his fathers shop and at 11 years old he started working with him and creating sculptures from the incense paste. Below he holds the beginnings of a figurine he is working on
Below you can see some of the figurines he has completed- each takes from 3-8 hours to create. He also expanded into making nativity scenes and customized ginger bread houses. I'm working on designing a gingerbread house for our family that will be a nautical theme and represent all the places we have lived.
He still makes the intricate incense sticks. He has some men working with him, but he is afraid his "new art sculptures" will be a dying art. Todays youth want office jobs, they are not interested in learning a craft.
