Artist carves incredibly tiny miniatures on pencil lead tips

Tom Lynall has a hobby that would drive most people insane: Carving the tips of pencils into intricate pieces of art.

The Birmingham, U.K. man is used to working with tiny objects, as he's been a jeweller for the last 10 years. But five years ago, Lynall started making models from the fantasy series Discworld by Terry Pratchett. As the models got increasingly tiny and complex, Lynall connected with others on Facebook who were also creating tiny carvings. Some people shared with him their creations carved into the tops of pencils, and he was inspired.

"I have noticed that a lot of people do them in one colour but I wanted to do them in multiple colours," Lynall told Yahoo Canada, so I carve each individual piece depending on its colour and glue them together."

Lynall says the hobby isn't for those without much patience; the most challenging part is making sure they don't break in the process. Simple carvings like the first ones he attempted took only about 10 to 15 minutes, but as they increase in complexity, they can take up to eight hours to complete.

"The difference between a regular graphite pencil and a coloured one is that the coloured graphite is a lot easier to break," Lynall said, explaining why some pieces can take such a long time to complete.

If Lynall's work has inspired you to start carving pencils yourself, he's got some tips to get you started:

"...they need to be prepared that they are going to break a lot! It takes a lot of patience and when you figure out what you want to make, personally [I think] you should break down each individual piece into its own shape.

"They can take a long time, but if you persevere it is very satisfying once you finish that final touch."

Check out more of Lynall's carvings on his Instagram account: @lynalljeweller