When others are busy building fantasy castles in the air, Nigel Logan is building them from match sticks, literally.

“Almost 15 years ago, I did a castle, it was the first thing I built, it was very attractive, persons were very fascinated by it,” Logan told the Jamaica Observer. That castle, built purely from match sticks was the starting point of the craft he has now honed almost to perfection.

“Someone from Edna Manley College of the Performing Arts saw it and said it was nice but felt that because of the size not everybody had space to put it. So she suggested I try to develop things on picture frames because most persons have space on their walls. So I started to work on it and practice,” Logan stated.

Since then he has made well over 30 pieces of his speciality, spending hundreds of hours in deep concentration in order to lay the thin sticks to perfection. His only raw material, ply, thousands of match sticks, lacquer and varnish.

“It takes a lot of patience. I start in the nights maybe at 10 pm and by time you realise it’s 4 am. It takes time to make it look exactly like what you want, you can’t rush. It’s inspiring to me, the expression on others’ faces when you are finished makes you feel that it’s worthwhile,” he said.

What started out as a medium through which to “blow off steam”, has now become a source of distinct pleasure and even income.

“A good friend of mine … he was like a big brother and so you know as a little youth you run to him to make kites, he was ‘missing for a while’ and when he came back he had learnt that trade. He could carve so I learnt from him.

“It’s something he taught me because you know we grew up as rude boys and so he said sometimes to keep down your temper you find something that will relax the mind, so he said reading and doing things creative will help you to have something on the mind rather than getting upset and angry,” Logan said.

“So I learnt that and anytime I got upset over anything I would find something and start to make something. Over the years I experimented with different crafts. I have friends who used to be in the Pen (General Penitentiary) and I worked with them. So by working and doing other things I decided to come up with something different from everybody,” he told the Observer.

“I have sold a few, persons will have an idea of something they want and I create it for them but I don’t keep a check. I am not making much out of it but there is just this crave to continue,” he added.

The 10-piece collection he now has left was developed between last year into this year and boasts his winning design of a ship for the 2012 Jamaica 50 art competition in which he represented the Postal Corporation of Jamaica where he is employed.

The complex piece is just the kind of challenge that Logan, who is also an ordained minister in the Apostolic Church, relishes.

“Seeing things and taking the challenge of designing it and making it come out… I like the challenge, I like when it’s difficult because I know when it comes out it’s going to be very attractive.

“The dream is to see it go where it can be recognised and attract other young men,” the 48-year-old said.

As for the castle with which it all began, “I am redoing the castle, building stone walls, a little driveway, a little meadow, little streams, I started to renovate it from last September,” he stated.