NEWS COPY
A real-life microscopic Alice, of Lewis Carroll’s seminal children’s tale ‘Alice In Wonderland’, found herself tumbling down a different sort of rabbit hole as the miniature figure was inhaled by her creator, micro-sculptor Willard Wigan.
Willard had been working on the scene, a representation of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party placed in the eye of a needle, when an intake of breath sent the guest of honour from the table and down his throat.
Willard said: "I have lost months of work through accidents in my workspace. While working on a sculpture of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party from Alice In Wonderland, for example, I accidentally inhaled Alice.
"In order to handle my pieces I have to create my own tools. I was holding the sculpture with a pair of tweezers made from my own eyelashes when I gave a sigh and dislodged Alice from the scene."
Wigan, who is currently displaying a collection of his work in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! London, has famously tackled such scenes as the Last Supper, the Statue of Liberty and a representation of Queen Elizabeth II’s Crown, which he presented to the monarch on her Diamond Jubilee.
"Each of my sculptures takes weeks of concentration and graft. The process drives me mad, quite frankly! To destroy a piece in its final moments before completion is a heart-breaking experience.
"I took Alice’s unexpected exit from the party as a sign that maybe my first attempt wasn’t up to scratch so I set about making another. I was far more pleased with the second rendition. Alice was meant to be inhaled, I suppose."
Microscopic mishaps are an ever-present risk for the Birmingham-based sculptor, who creates the world’s smallest works of art.
At Willard’s scale, even his own heartbeat is a risk to his creations, which lead the artist to develop a meditative technique to reduce his heart rate, sculpting between beats.
He works his sculptures into shape using custom tools which he crafts himself, such as sharpened pins with razor edges for cutting and a set of micro-tweezers made from a pair of his own eyelashes.
He then mounts and displays each piece in the eye of a needle or on the head of a pin.
Disaster also struck while Willard was working on his most recent creation when the artwork was jettisoned into the air – and up his nose.
Willard had been putting the finishing touches on his latest project – a tiny replica of the classic Chanel No. 5 perfume bottle – when the spec under his microscope disappeared.
Willard said: "It had taken me about two months to get to the point where I was satisfied with what I’d crafted. I was about to lift it when the eyelash tweezers caught on the bottle and catapulted the sculpture off the table and into the air.
"The Chanel No. 5 bottle is smaller than a full stop. It’s made of a piece of broken glass which I polished into the shape of the perfume bottle with crushed diamond particles. I then used a diamond drill to cut the edges.
"After all that time and effort I was so frustrated at losing the sculpture in the final moments that I started to cry.
"When I was done crying I went to the mirror in the bathroom to wipe my eyes – and that’s when I spotted a glistening particle on my face.
"The bottle had miraculously flicked from the base of the microscope onto the end of my nose.
"There was a billion to one chance of finding the sculpture again. I thought to myself that if anyone had seen it all unfold they wouldn’t have believed it!
"From that point I got it off by twirling up a tiny piece of blu-tac and running it over my nose. I was then able to mount the bottle back on the base of the microscope.
“Since then I have positioned the Chanel No. 5 bottle in the eye of a needle, which I am preparing to present to a friend as a gift."
Willard, who suffered with undiagnosed autism throughout his school years, was inspired by his mother to create his tiny sculptures after being paraded as an example of failure by his teachers.
His artwork was also recently used as inspiration for Birmingham’s entry into the 2016 Chelsea Flower Show, where the intricate floral display was named winner.
Lucy Waddell, General Manager at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London said, "We feel extremely privileged to be able to say that we will be hosting Willard Wigan’s extraordinary work at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! London attraction. The sculptures truly are masterpieces and have to be seen to be believed! I am sure adults and children alike will be amazed by Willard’s mind blowing work."
A selection of Willard Wigan’s micro-sculptures are currently featuring at Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!, London, from 1st July.
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