Sculpting in the Eye of a Needle

Every breed of art deserves at least a short moment in the limelight. Microsculpting, however, deserves quite a bit more. Taking up to six weeks on a single piece, microsculpter Willard Wigan creates miniature versions of pop culture icons that must be viewed from a microscope. Wired Magazine shares this incredible story:

“I’m like a mad professor, but without the spiky hair,” laughs Wigan, 52, who spends about six weeks on each piece. “I get down to 6, 7 microns, which is one-third the size of a period you’d see in a newspaper.”

“I cut the joints of this nylon fiber and moved the arm toward its head, but as I bend it, the arm keeps wanting to spring back,” he says, describing the delicate process. “I’m making little grooves, and as I’m cutting, the body starts to bend and twist and by then, perspiration starts dripping off my finger down the tool and toward the sculpture, like a little tidal wave of sweat coming down.”

Link

Previously on Neatorama: Posts about Willard Wigan

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by theturbolemming.


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As a tribute to the moonlandings, the astronaut sculpture is fine. If, as the article states, the sculpture is a tribute to Buzz Aldrin's moonwalk (Apollo 11), the artist has made a glaring mistake. The red stripes on the spacesuit did not appear until Apollo 14 (they were used so that mission control could distinguish between the 2 astronauts.) Even if the stripes had been in use on Apollo 11, the astronaut in the sculpture would be Neil Armstrong, as the commander of the mission was the one who wore the stripes. None of that detracts from the process, which is admirable... but sometimes the devil is in the details (especially in art that commands 6 figures).
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ok, it's cool when you're reading about it and looking at the pictures and all, but this guy was on the Tonight Show with Conan and he was talking about it and the whole interview about his creations were so booring.
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