The Smallest Sculptures in the World

He is a very unusual and very talented sculptor. What makes him such an unusual sculptor is not so much what he chooses to create, but how he chooses to create it.

Willard Wigan is the creator of the smallest sculptures in the world.

He uses a very tiny surgical knife to carve his work from such material as a single grain of sand, a grain of sugar, and grains of rice.


Statue of Liberty


The finished sculptures are so small that some of them measure only 0.005mm or 0.0002 inches tall and the only way the artist can see his project is to use a high powered microscope.

Peter Pan



The slightest movement or breeze could cause a sculpture to be lost forever. Willard tells one story of losing one of his sculptures when he sneezed saying he may have accidentally inhaled it.

Lloyds of London



These extraordinary sculptures are mounted on the heads of pins, inside the eye of needles, and on the tip of needles.

Golfer



After being mounted, Willard paints his figures using a hair from a dead fly for a paint brush. He will not kill a fly for his work.

Marilyn Monroe



Because he had trouble learning when he was young, Willard said he was made to feel inferior and small so he began his art as a way to show the world that sometimes, small can be a lot.

Henry the Eighth's Six Wives



Willard has mastered complete control of his breathing and his heartbeat. He works in between heart beats to keep a steady hand and chooses to work at night when there is less commotion that could cause the loss of his tiny sculptures.