Wax wonder on pinhead

Warangal: At the very first glance, one would only find a pin. But given a deep glimpse, there lies a wax-made idol of a freedom fighter holding aloft the Indian tri-colour on the pinhead. Such is the mastery of Mattewada Ajay Kumar, a self-taught micro artist.

The 45-year-old Ajay, a goldsmith by profession, has the uncanny knack of doing something special on special occasions. During the Ganesh Chaturthi last year, he created a miniature idol of Lord Vinayaka made of wax in the eye of a needle. Again, he came back with another micro masterpiece of Jesus Christ for the Christmas.

Aptly, this time around on the eve of 72nd Independence Day, he has come up with an idol of a freedom fighter riding a horse with the India flag. In fact, it’s not all that easily visible to the naked eye. It would take a good magnifying glass to view this masterpiece.  

The height and width of the flag is 0.22 mm and 0.43 mm. The height and width of the man in carving is 1.38 mm and 1.69 mm. The height of the horse is 1.02 mm. The width and head of the pin is 0.90 mm and 1.69 mm.

“It took four months to craft the micro-sculpture,” Ajay told The Hans India. To be precise, I spent 28 hours in four months to craft it, he said, who already bagged three prestigious Limca Book of Awards in his micro-working career.

In 2004, he made world’s smallest gold lock and key, which etched his name in the Limca Book of Records. In 2008, he again hit the headlines when he made a smallest functional fan. This apart, he also etched the portraits of eminent personalities such as AB Vajpayee, PV Narasimha Rao, Prof Jayashankar and others on rice grains.

When asked about his passion for micro-sculptures, Ajay said that it all started in his childhood. “I watched my father Venkatachary making miniature objects with gurivinda (Abrus Precatorius) seed. That triggered passion in me to make micro-sculptures.

I made my first micro-sculpture in 1990. So far, I have created 50-odd micro objects,” Ajay said. Ajay has been contemplating to organise an expo to exhibit all his micro-sculptures in near future.