Following on from the very traditional pastime of keeping song birds we travelled to a nearby small industrial area to visit 'the Joss Stick Man". Amos Tay and his brother are continuing in their father's business making traditional richly decorated 'dragon' joss sticks used at Chinese festivals.
Amos welcomed us into the workshop, which seemed to be 'organised' choas, with craft materials, partly made figurines and paperwork piled up everywhere
He kindly and enthusiastically described how the huge incense sticks are made. First a mixture of coarsely ground cinnamon bark and sawdust is mixed with water so that it becomes malleable and almost like play-do. It is rolled out and then wrapped around a stick and when the correct thickness taken outside to dry in the sun. After drying a coating of more finely ground cinnamon bark and sawdust mixture is applied.
Decorations, also made from the same cinnamon bark/sawdust mixture and air dried in the sun, are then attached to the incense sticks. The sticks are then painted by Amos's brother using a spray gun, the colours all seemed very bright
The decorations are appropriate to whatever festival the incense sticks are being crafted for. Amos proudly showed the collection of incense sticks that he and his brother had just completed for the
forth coming Nine Emperor Gods Festival, a nine-day Taoist celebration beginning on the eve of 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, observed primarily in Southeast Asian countries. Each stick takes about 16hours to burn
Amos's father realised some years ago that cheaper imported Chinese incense sticks would threaten his business so he started making figurines and other art pieces to sell. Amos started learning the craft when he was 11 years old and now creates intricate figurines, many are made to order and cost between $30 and $150. The most popular figurine amongst the local clientele are those that are auspicious such as the 'courageous' dragon.
Amos demonstrated how he uses the mixture to form the folds of clothing on a figure and then instructed us as we made a 'hand' out of a small roll of the mixture. Papa T was very pleased with his effort which, along with my 'hand' is now sticking out of a flower pot drying on our balcony-they might useful as back scratchers but I doubt it
At this time of year; the run up to Christmas, Amos makes decorations that can be hung from Christmas trees as well as Nativity sets, which seemed slightly bizarre. I'm not sure who the figure below will turn out to be?
Before we left Amos mentioned rather sadly that he thought that he would be the last incense maker in Singapore as his sons and the younger generation are not interested in carrying on the craft, which seems rather a shame.
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We left the incense behind and carried on to visit another local craftsman; Ng Hong Kian who kindly welcomed us into his home where he makes lion and dragon heads to be used in traditional dances. He lives on the 24th floor of a HDB flat (the Singapore Housing Development Board is the statutory board of the Ministry of National Development responsible for public housing in Singapore).
His home has been taken over by his craft, materials and lion and dragon heads in varying stages of completion were everywhere
Mr Ng explained how he first makes the frame using aluminium as the base to fix the rattan strips to
Then he applies 2 layers of rice paper and lastly a layer of gauze, these are glued on and when dry the structure is dry it's ready for painting and the ears, eyes, mouth and decorations can be added
The whole structure is very light, it needs to be as the dancer will be inside his costume and having to hold up the head and make it move whilst he performs the energetic lion dance
The ears, eyes and mouth can all be moved by the dancer by pulling on strings that have been attached to the moving parts
I loved this lion's vivid pink eyelids
Mr Ng, like Amos said that he was worried that his craft may be dying out in Singapore as Chinese imports cost less, his heads though last for much longer as they are better made. However Mr Ng said that he has had to start importing and selling some Chinese made heads due to his customers demanding cheaper products
Our last stop of the day was to Yeo Swee Huat; a funeral services company which caters specially to Chinese traditional funerals. It supplies paper money, houses, horses, cars and other paper offerings to be burnt at funerals
Mr Yeo also specialises in designing and painting traditional Chinese lanterns. These will be hung in temples and outside clan houses as symbols of identity and status
Mr Yeo was not available so his wife explained how the lanterns are decorated by first tracing the outline of the design with pen onto the paper and glue 'skin' covering the bamboo frame
Then with a brush Mr Yeo paints the design using 6 coats of paint
Red is the most popular colour because it signifies good luck and fortune
All of the crafts that we had seen have been painstakingly made for many years by generations of craftsmen but all the crafts now seem to be under threat partly due to cheaper imports being available and partly due to the younger generation's lack of interest in learning the necessary skills to continue the crafts and willingness to make this their career. I suspect it's the same the world over so I felt very lucky to be able to find out a little about making incense sticks, lion and dragon heads and Chinese temple lanterns.
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