Beauty is in the Eye of the Needle

Willard Wigan's Micro-Sculptures

Artist Willard Wigan, of Birmingham, England, is often called the creator of the world's smallest sculptures. These amazing micro-sculptures are so small they fit on the head of a pin, on a grain of sand, or in the eye of a needle. Some are invisible to the naked eye and require a microscope to be seen.

Often taking months to complete a single sculpture, Wigan makes them under a microscope, working between heartbeats to avoid hand
tremors. He uses a tiny surgical blade and shards of glass to carve the microscopic figures out of grains of rice or sand and fragments of sugar. The creations are painted with a single hair or eyelash, and then mounted on pinheads or needles.

You can see more examples of this amazing miniature art at Wigan's website, and this slideshow from the BBC.