In the eye of a needle artist 'breaking boundaries'

Artist Adrian Thompson has created micro art from small pieces of gold that fit through the eye of a needle.

He said he enjoyed challenging himself to see what he could create.

Thompson, who works in Par, said: "As an artist sometimes it's you versus yourself. You want to see what you can create."

Each tiny piece takes up to a year to make and he is planning to display it at Bodmin's Discovering 42 science museum in December.

He started out transforming his gold dental filling, which had fallen out, into an angel when he lived in his home town of Solihull, near Birmingham.

Thompson used a file and said: "It slowly came to life over a period of about nine months, to my amazement."

He added: "Each times I picked it up I did a little bit more and a little bit more and got more inspiration. When I finally finished it I thought I really enjoyed it, I wonder what else I could be doing."

Thompson uses a microscope and had to customise watch maker's tools or make his own tiny tools to create his art.

He has placed his work in the eye of a needle, on the end of a needle and on a cat's whisker.

He also mounted a mini helicopter on an eyelash, which is one of the piece's people will be able to see in Bodmin.

Thompson created a microscope viewing dome for his pieces, which include a Ferrari horse on the end of a match stick valued at £100,000, the Aston Villa lion logo that was displayed at the club and a waving cat.

In the run-up to Halloween he made a microscopic gold witch flying out of an syringe point of a needle, along with a small Cornish pixie.

He said: "I've got many pieces to entertain people covering a range of different subjects.

"I've got quite a big car collection and what I call a 007 collection, which consists of Aston Martin wing DBS badge, and the 007 logo, all through the eye of a needle."

He added: "I've also created a standing Buddha out of white gold, a Chinese god called Caishen which fits on a meteorite, and a camel through the eye of a needle, so there is plenty of variety in my work."

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