PATIENT ARTIST HAND CARVES TINY CHAIN FROM A SINGLE PENCIL LEAD

If you’ve ever broken the tip of your pencil by leaning too hard on the page, you know how incredibly delicate the graphite material is. Despite the lead's fragility, Taiwanese artist Chien Chu Lee doesn’t shy away from using brittle pencil tips as his medium.

Covering a range of subjects, he transforms ordinary pencils into mind-blowing miniature sculptures by hand-carving detailed forms from the tip. Each has succeeded. Lee posts on Instagram, "I always wanted to carve this, no matter how hard the work is even after some failed, [I] insist on it." Without breaking the tip of the pencil, each tiny, individual link was painstakingly carved to create the amazing piece. The solid graphite stem was able to be transformed by Lee into a long, flowing chain that resembles metal. Lee exclaims, "I firmly believe, [it doesn't] get better than this," delighted with the outcome. 

Lee has always wanted to carve a link chain out of pencil lead, and after numerous attempts, he has succeeded. Lee posts on Instagram, "I always wanted to carve this, no matter how hard the work is even after some failed, [I] insist on it."

Without breaking the tip of the pencil, each tiny, individual link was painstakingly carved to create the amazing piece. The solid graphite stem was able to be transformed by Lee into a long, flowing chain that resembles metal. Lee exclaims, "I firmly believe, [it doesn't] get better than this," delighted with the outcome.