Microsculpture by Hand – Microscopes, Fly Hairs and Body Control

I’m poaching on Bioephemera‘s turf here, but I’m still a bit stunned by watching Willard Wigan last night on The Tonight Show.  You might be familiar with the occasional pictures etched into silicon chips by their manufacturers, done by machines.  Willard Wigan does something only slightly larger (you still need some kind of microscope to view his work), and by hand.  Here’s an example.

Willard Wigan's take on Snow White

The work is indeed within the eye of a needle.  As Wigan describes in the interviews linked to below, he has to take incredible care with his body and his surroundings in order to make these pieces.  He will meditate to slow his heart rate, and time it so he does his carving in between beats.  The process redefines meticulous.  Additionally, working at this scale demonstrates how things stop working in the ways we expect.  Static electricity becomes a real force to be reckoned with, and material that seems flexible and fragile at larger scales can indeed work as sculpting materials when working that small.  He works with a microscope and special tools, though he will use nature to help him out – he paints with the hair of a fly.  It would be fascinating to have him sit down with microsurgeons and others who work on this scale, but it seems that hasn’t happened.  I hope I’m wrong, as he probably has something to teach them.  You get some hints and peeks at Wigan’s process in this ABC News segment from June 2007 (after the jump).

Wigan’s interview with Conan O’Brien is available online (but beyond my limited embedding mojo).  He also presented at a TED conference last month.

Wigan is pretty well established in Britain, and was recognized as a Member of the British Empire for his work.  He’s in Los Angeles as part of a U.S. exhibit tour.  If you’ll be in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago or Houston in the next few weeks, get more information from his website on where you can look through high-powered microscopes to see his work.