Kailash Babu was 18 when a photo on his brother’s Facebook timeline left a profound imprint on him. The image featured a giraffe sculpture that had been carved out of the tip of a pencil by Brazilian artist Dalton Ghetti. Barely a few millimetres in diameter, its detailing was exquisite. “That was when I decided: this is what I want to do,” he said.

Over the last six years, the 24-year-old from Tiruvallur in Tamil Nadu has carved more than 200 miniature sculptures on pencil lead – some as small as 0.7 mm in diameter. Among them have been sculptures of bookshelves, alphabets, farmers, birds, vehicles, faces, tools, and even a newborn attached to the umbilical cord. Kailash’s carving of a bloodied sanitary napkin – “I want to speak up against such taboos” – was part of an art exhibition in Lalit Kala Akademi in Chennai in April.

Read more at Scroll.