the smallest coincidence i've ever seen

As a fan of all things small, I love micro-miniature sculptures. Micro-miniatures are extremely tiny sculptures made from things like dust or a single hair; the sculptures are so small that they can fit inside the eye of sewing needles, and they are so delicate that they can only be worked on inbetween heartbeats. One of my favorite micro-miniaturists is Hagop Sandaljian, an Armenian who passed away in the early 90's. Hagop's work remains relatively anonymous, and I don't think he ever sold any of it.

Well, today I came across this article about another micro-miniaturist named Willard Wiggan who recently sold his work for an impressive £11.2 million; his collection included this amazing tiny sculpture of Snowhite and the Seven Dwarfs standing inside the eye of a sewing needle.

Immediately, the work of Hagop came to mind. Check out Hagop's micro-miniature version of Snowhite and the Seven Dwarfs (standing outside the eye of a sewing needle):

Is this some sort of incredibly small coincidence, or what?

I'm pretty sure Hagop's work pre-dates that of Willard's. My first thought was whether Willard consciously copied Hagop, but whatever suspicion I had toward Mr. Willard quickly dissolved when I read this quote of his:

"Being a child I used to start making houses for ants because I thought they needed somewhere to live."

That's just an awesome idea, and I'm willing to give him benefit of the doubt based on that alone. But what are the odds of two obsessive souls, slaving away in isolation, working inbetween heartbeats sculpting nearly identical micro-miniatures of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?

I also can't help but wonder which one is smaller? it would be great to compare both under a microscope. Here they are side by side:

Both Snowhites are standing with arms open wearing the same dress. But Willard's has a witch, which Hagop's lacks. It's also interesting how the character of the sewing needles seems to match their respective styles; Willard's needle/style has a more craggy sinister nature, while Hagop's seems cute and round with more classic proportions.

Perhaps there is just something inherent to Snowhite and the Seven Dwarves that demands to be small, and inspires whatever it is that Hagop and Willard share.

An interesting aside about Hagop and Disney; Hagop was from Armenia, but immigrated to the US with his family in 1980. He quickly fell in love with the world of Disney and was inspired to meticulously craft several micro-miniatures that pay homage to Disney characters, including Mickey Mouse and an awesome dancing Goofy.

The characters of Disney are copyright protected, but if I remember the story correctly, someone in the Disney family was so taken by the incredible beauty of Hagop's sculptures that they granted Sandaljian an extremely rare license to legally sell his micro-miniature versions he had made of Disney characters; the license was granted for an unheard of nominal fee: $1. Disney is notorious for protecting their characters, so that says a lot. It also says a lot about Hagop that he never sold any of his micro-miniatures. I think they were too precious to him; but I also don't think he was ever offered £11.2 million! Hagop passed away shortly before the first public exhibition of his work, which was curated by the Museum of Jurassic Technology, one of my all time favorite LA places.

I remember that Disney story from a lecture I went to several years ago given by David Wilson. David is the founder of the Museum of Jurassic Technology; the museum still has several micro-miniatures by Hagop, including Goofy. As a small aside, the museum also has a collection of mosaics made from the scales of butterfly wings which are pretty fantastic.

I love the incredible scale of micro-miniatures, and the compression of labor into a small compact result. Before really devoting myself to The 1 Second Film, I thought about becomming a micro-miniaturist. I even got a stereo-scopic micro-scope, made a micro-sculpting tool using diamond dust, and sculpted a few micro-scopic seahorses...which i have since lost somewhere. I still may pursue it at some point, but at the time I decided to turn my focus back to this, which is basically a micro-miniature film.

hope all are having a good weekend. 

n