Play

Lee Chien-chu, an artist from Taiwan, has been creating awe-inspiring works of art with the help of pencils. So?

No, he doesn't draw with them. He uses several types of pencils, with their lead less than 0.1 mm in diameter, to create tiny sculptures.

His sculptures are time-consuming and can take as long as ten hours to make. "I have created a series about Buddha hands, a series about architecture, one about traditional (Chinese) weapons and one about the alphabet. Those are all artworks that I like very much," he told Reuters.

He works with a magnifying glass to make the mini figurines, which include an eclectic collection ranging from famous landmarks such as Dubai’s Burj Al Arab to a dazzling field of 180 miniature tulips.

Chien is self-taught and seeks inspiration from another fellow artist, Dalton Ghetti. The 42-year-old doesn’t sell his work and stows away his ornaments in the cupboard. He started painstakingly crafting these little wonders for his children in 2010 and hasn’t looked back since.