Renowned microsculptor Willard Wigan MBE has created the world’s smallest ever work of art by carving a motorcycle on a hollowed-out hair stubble, by hand, in between his heartbeats. The tiny masterpiece measures just 3 microns and is only visible through a microscope.

55-year-old Willard Wigan MBE was already famous for his tiny pinhead sculptures, but he wanted “to go beyond human expectations” and “personally challenge himself” to create something even more amazing that the world hadn’t seen before. So one day, while brushing his face after a shave, he noticed a tiny hair stubble embedded in his fingerprint and decided that was going to be his new canvas. The Birmingham-based artist somehow managed to hollow out the hair fragment and armed with a special tool featuring microscopic diamond fragments he painstakingly sculpted a golden chopper motorcycle, working 16-hours a day for five weeks. Why would such a small work of art take so long to create, you ask? Willard explains that his microscopic chopper is smaller that a human blood cell and so fragile that even the pulse in his finger could have crushed it completely, so he was forced to work in between heartbeats.

Photo: Greubel Forsey Time Art Gallery

“It drove me mad to do,” Willard admits. “I burst a blood vessel in my eye staring so hard through the microscope. It has been one of my most challenging projects ever. I have surpassed what I even thought I was capable of.” Asked why he chose a motorcycle for the tiny art piece, the artist said he sees the hair stub as a road, and he has always loved those orange county choppers, so it just made sense. Now Willard Wigan plans to show off his greatest achievement and has exhibits scheduled in Europe, China and the USA throughout 2013.

Photo © SWNS

Talking about his motivation to create microscopic works of art, the English artist said: “My mother always told me the smaller you go – the bigger your name would be. She kept pushing me – so I pushed myself.”

Source: SWNS via Nothing to Do with Arbroath