And what had he inspired his master craftsmen to create?
Using local materials and craftsmen to create products has been shown to resonate with consumers, particularly when it comes to food.
Jesuit missionaries had cooperated with scientists and master craftsmen to create formulas, and a small body of writing had appeared, which was to be augmented in the 18th century the golden age of European lacquer.
Together with his artist and curator friend, Zuo Jing, he began a two-year research project focusing on handicraft traditions in Bishan, inviting artists and designers to work with local craftsmen to create new products using their old techniques.
Publishers such as Ambroise Vollard commissioned members of the School of Paris, among them Braque, Matisse, Bonnard, and Picasso, to illustrate books in which the illustrator worked closely with highly skilled craftsmen to create colourful, original, limited editions, which, while they sometimes may fail as readable books, achieve admirable success as visual decoration.
But as they are being picked apart in a ship-breaking operation rarely seen by outsiders, Peter Knego, a former music promoter, has been buying up their furniture and fittings, remnants of an era when cruise lines turned to artists and craftsmen to create striking midcentury interiors.
Every month, the startup will select a new theme and find craftsmen to create objects around this topic.
Instead it stands as a testament to the fact that the Society of Friends encouraged craftsmen to create as "the spirit moved them".
During his work, Matejko commissioned craftsmen to create a replica of a scaffolding that was used to move the bell, and he identified its likely original location, in order for it to be portrayed realistically.
