Jenny's Noodle

Photo credit: Telegraph

Frustration is when the tip of your pencil suddenly breaks mid-stroke. But we quickly resharpen, or click, and continue writing. When the same thing happens to Brazilian-born artist Dalton Ghetti, he instantly loses months or even years of work. Ghetti carves the tips of ordinary graphite pencils using tools like sewing needles and razor blades to create incredibly tiny sculptures. His best known work, Alphabet (shown above), took 2 1/2 years to complete.

“The pencil tip is great; it’s like a pure, very homogeneous material,” Ghetti told the New York Times. “It cuts in the same direction, not like wood, which has a grain. But when I tell people how long it takes, that’s when they don’t believe it. That’s what amazes people more, the patience. Because everything nowadays has to be fast, fast, fast.”

Photo credit: Telegraph

Photo credit: Telegraph

See more of Ghetti's pencil lead sculptures here