A man has created a sculpture of a tiger smaller than a grain of rice that’s fully visible only through a magnifying glass.
Chen Forng-shean (陳逢顯), who has been sculpting as a hobby for 30 years, carved from resin what he calls the world’s tiniest tiger at 1mm high and just over 1mm long ahead of the Year of the Tiger, which begins on Feb. 14.
Chen said the brightly colored beast nearly got the best of him over 10 attempts to create it.
“If the hands shook a little bit, the work would jump away and disappear,” said Chen, 54, a minting plate designer by trade. “For this tiger, the toughest part is it is three-dimensional. It can be looked at from any angle and still seem very lively. Coloring was also very difficult, with the patterns on his back and the red color on his tongue.”
The single animal, created after three months of intensive labor, was finished in November and Chen said it was valued at NT$3 million (US$94,200), although it is not for sale.
Tigers bring variable luck, being dependable and unpredictable at the same time.
Chen said he has already felt the suspense the Lunar New Year is likely to bring.
“My job is dealing with very fine things, so I learned to breathe and hold my breath,” he said. “Now when I take a breath, I can hold it for 60 seconds and then I can engrave every stroke with the rhythm of my pulse.”
Chen has used rice, sand, thread, dental floss, ant heads and fly wings to create other miniature sculptures, which are a hallmark of high-end ancient Chinese art.
He expects to carve for five more years, producing even smaller sculptures and including scenes that encase mountains, waterfalls and people.
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