We all enjoy walking around a museum, having a good look at the sculptures and bits of art on display – usually from a good distance behind some red ropes.
But there are some sculptures out there where standing behind a barrier just wouldn’t do it because you wouldn’t see them!
English sculptor and artist Willard Wigan specialize in sculptures that are carved out of singular grains of rice!
In fact, most of Willard’s sculptures are that tiny you’d need a magnifying glass to really soak in the exquisite details in each one.
Tools of the trade.
To make these incredible tiny sculptures, Willard uses toothpicks and sugar crystals to carve and paint his pieces – with the smallest sculptures being measured in thousandths of an inch!
To give his sculptures some context, Willard displays them in needle eyes, or sitting on an eyelash and even next to a grain of sand.
Now you can really appreciate how fantastically detailed and tiny they really are.
A self-taught artist.
At the age of 5, Willard started making tiny houses for ants because he thought they needed somewhere to live.
After that he started making them tiny shoes and hats, because they needed to look dapper in their tiny houses.
Learning how to carve into something as small as a grain of rice is something Willard also had to teach his body to do.
He studied meditative techniques and states to lower any movement in his body – holding his breath with each stroke to ensure the exact control needed to create such intimate detail.
It’s a job that comes with some hazards though – when asked about his work he said how, when working on the Alice in Wonderland piece, “There was a tragedy when I first tried making this piece… I inhaled Alice!”
Talk about falling down a black hole to Wonderland eh?
Check out Willard’s incredible work – you will not be disappointed!
