Miniature Pencil Tip Masterpieces
Numerous artists use pencils to create art works, while American-based artist Dalton Ghetti turns their tips into intricate microscopic sculptures, thus actually sculpting his art work out of pencils. Ghetto has been actively pursuing his hobby for a full 25 years now, although exclusively in his free time when he’s relaxing from his day job – carpentry. The entire alphabet, portraits of famous people such as Elvis Presley, churches, chairs, etc. can be found in his 10-millimeter-high collection.
His unusual story began back in grade school when he started carving out his friends’ names on pencils. With time he moved on to classic sculpturing which didn’t satisfy his ambitions after all. His sculptures became smaller by the day, until finally reaching microscopic proportions. In his unusual experiment he tried out various materials until one day deciding to carve out a graphite pencil tip. He uses fairly classic tools for carving such as razor blades, sewing needles and a wood carving knife for his creative endeavors. It’s incredible that he doesn’t use any type of magnifying glass in his work and refrains from accepting money for his microscopic figures. Each and every one of his works ultimately ends up as a gift for his friends and loved ones.
Ghetti doesn’t view his amazing hobby as art, rather as a kind of meditative and relaxing experience after a hard day’s work. When asked about his mindset while sculpting, Dalton stated: “When I’m working I’m alone in my studio and in a deep state of concentration, it’s like another mind state I float about in. I use the sewing needle to make holes or dig into the graphite. I scratch and create lines and turn the graphite around slowly in my hand.”
Several months are required to complete most sculptures, and the longest he worked on a certain pencil was the two-linked-hearts pencil, which he spent more than two years working on. Even though he created hundreds of sculptures throughout the years, he never singles out any one particular pencil, always stating his favorite as the one he’s currently working on. In the beginning the continuous breaking of fragile graphite frustrated him to no end so he put all his broken pencils in a box entitled “The Posthumous Collection” which counts over a hundred works. It’s interesting to note that Ghetti never buys the pencils; as he says himself: “My friends are always giving me pencils to sculpt or sometimes I use ones I find in the street.”
