Pencil Tip Sculptures By Salavat Fidai

Unless you’re one of the relatively few people who needs to work pencils, most people generally find them annoying; something you’d rather leave in the 6th grade. But Russian artist Salavat Fidai opened our eyes to just how beautiful they can be with these Ripley’s Believe-It-Or-Not-esque carvings.

There’s Batman, Darth Vader, an Oscar trophy, a lock and key, and more, all intricately carved by hand into the pointy end of graphite pencils. Fidai creates these mind boggling sculptures using just a craft knife and a 4x magnifying glass. Only when he photographs them with a macro lens is the stunning level of detail fully grasped. He even dedicated some to the murdered artists at French magazine Charlie Hebdo, with outstretched arms making a fist with the word “Freedom” inscribed on the arm.