Wednesday Wonder: Willard Wigan

It was a fantasy world I escaped to . . . That's how my career as a micro-sculptor began.

~ Willard Wigan MBE

Made an "example of failure" at age 5, Willard Wigan created a place for himself where, he said, his dyslexia couldn't hold him back and his teachers couldn't criticize him. He imagined that place while looking down at the ground, where he spied some tiny ants that he decided needed somewhere to live.

Willard Wigan is a micro-sculptor. His art fits on the head of a pin and inside the eye of a needle. It's invisible to the naked eye.

Wigan cuts what he needs with a blade fashioned from a needle. He paints with a hair from his face or an eyelash. His takes his materials as he finds them, from fine gold, carbon fibers, swirls of dust particles snatched from the air, grains of sand.

Everything Wigan does, he does using a microscope, with a hand steadier than a surgeon's applied between heartbeats.

He is a wonder, called by some the "Eighth Wonder of the World". See and hear why:





Images of Wigan's extraordinary sculptures, some of which take up to three months to create, may be viewed here (click on the tab titled The Art of Willard Wigan). Signed limited-edition prints of his work, including "Nine Camels", "Queen Nefertiti", "The Simpsons", "Statue of Liberty", and "Incredible Hulk", also are available. (Prices, in British Sterling, are listed on Wigan's site.)

Wigan's biography, I Spy With My Little Eye, may be purchased here.

Ripley's Special Edition 2010 includes a page on Wigan.

BBC Website coverage of Wigan is here.

Additional videos of Wigan's appearances may be viewed here.


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