Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Get Buried In A Giant Chicken Or Other Strange Thing






Demand for 'crazy coffins' - made in the shape of sharks, pineapples and beer bottles - has rocketed after an African carpenter put on a UK art show.

Paa Joe, a 66-year-old master coffin maker from Ghana in West Africa, has rustled up hundreds of coffins in the last few decades - making them in the shape of whatever the deceased desired.

Among the bizarre coffins he has made in the past include ones made to look like mobile phones, pineapples, sharks, coke bottles, beer bottles, chickens, cars and aeroplanes.

And after a show at London's Jack Bell Gallery earlier this year - combined with a number of his pieces on show at the prestigious British Museum - demand for his coffins has rocketed all over the world.

Thousands of people saw the displays at the gallery and museum - leading to a flurry of requests from UK residents to be buried in personalised 'fantasy' coffins.

Just under 600,000 people die in the UK every year - meaning gaining just a tiny share of the market can be very lucrative.

Paa Joe works for the Kane Kwei Carpentry Works in Accra, Ghana, which was set up in the 1950s by Seth Kane Kwei, who made his first-ever coffin the shape of an aeroplane so his gran could take her 'first flight' after she died.


For the rest of the story and funny coffin photos go HERE

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