Taiwanese artist Chien Chu Lee meticulously carves pencils into miniature sculptures boasting incredible detail. Inspired by everything around him, Lee’s subjects range from international architecture and pop culture icons to realistic hand figures expressing a variety of gestures. Each piece offers a remarkable display of patience, steadiness of hand, and overall craftsmanship at an awe-inspiringly small scale.
One of the most impressive creations in the artist’s collection, though, is his recreation of the entire alphabet on a single stick of lead. More than your typical pencil carving, Lee’s Roman alphabet is etched into a thin graphite refill for a mechanical pencil, measuring at a mere 0.5mm. In case the scale of this measurement isn’t clear enough, Lee provides a photo of his creation, which serves as a narrow bridge of letters for ants–yes, it’s narrow even for ants!
If you take a moment to really think about it… how many times have you accidentally snapped a stick of lead while trying to refill a pencil? Can you even fathom taking something so delicate and carving legible shapes into it? Lee did, with artistic prowess.
