Perhaps you saw ‘The Power of Making’ exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. If not, it’s still there until January 2nd 2012 and I HIGHLY recommend checking it out. It’s different, it’s inspiring and it’s FREE.
Out of the many different objects on display – from DIY cardboard surfboards to beaded QR codes and a diamante studded bicycle, my favourite piece was a row of pencil stubs by Brazilian artist Dalton M. Ghetti.
The brilliance is not immediately obvious. You have to look a little bit closer. When you do, it’s astounding. Into each pencil’s graphite tip, Dalton M. Ghetti has carved a letter of the alphabet. 26 perfect, impossibly neat letters, each only a few millimetres tall and all carved using only sewing needles and a sharp blade.
As a jewellery artisan with a knack for crafting small wire figures, I’m used to working ‘en miniature’. But not quite like this. Dalton M. Ghetti blew me away. If you think a miniature alphabet is impressive, try this:
- Miniature hammer
- Miniature saw
- Miniature giraffe
- Miniature ‘post box’
- Miniature ‘lonesome house on the prairie’ – or that’s what it looks like to me…
- And best of all in my opinion…2 pencils linked by a fragile chain made entirely from pencil graphite
A carpenter by trade, Dalton M. Ghetti clearly knows his stuff.
