Paa Joe was fifteen years old when he began a twelve-year apprenticeship with his mother’s cousin, Kane Kwei (1922–1992), who is recognized as the first to popularize the use of figurative coffins for burial. After he left Kwei’s workshop, Paa Joe went to the coast for two years to carve boats, raising the money needed to open his own business, Paa Joe Coffin Works, in Nungua in 1976. Since then, he has created more than two thousand coffins and trained young artists such as Daniel Mensah, Eric Kpakpo, and Kudjoe Affutu, all of whom have become successful figurative coffin makers. Paa Joe paints his wood sculptures himself or outsources the job to other artists in his workshop. Among his regular collaborators is the sign painter Daniel Anum Jasper, who notably worked on Paa Joe’s 2004–2005 castles and forts. In 2008, Paa Joe relocated his company to Pobiman, in the Greater Accra region.