By Adam Dutton via SWNS
An artist injected botox around his eyes to avoid making a comedy of errors while engraving the world’s smallest portrait of Shakespeare.
Graham Short spent hundreds of hours painstakingly etching the Bard’s features onto a tiny speck of 9ct gold which he mounted in the eye of a needle.
The finished work, which can only be viewed through a microscope, is being sold for £24,000 (over $30,000).
Each hair on Shakespeare’s head measures 50 microns in height – half the width of a
human hair which is 100 microns.
Graham, 78, takes beta blockers to lower his heartbeat to just 20 bpm and works between beats to ensure his hand is as steady as possible.
He also takes Botox injections around his eyelids to stop any muscle twitches disturbing his concentration.
The grandfather works only at night when traffic noise and vibrations are at a minimum outside his workshop in Birmingham’s busy Jewellery Quarter.
He said: “I have always wanted to create something with Shakespeare in mind.
“Engraving his portrait into an eye of a needle was an incredible challenge but I’m delighted with the results.
“I can only work at night when there’s very little traffic vibrations coming through the workshop.
“I started off with a nine-karat gold disc which was a speck really. I gently hammered it into the eye of a needle and went from there.”
The needle artwork, called The Bard of Avon, is based on the iconic portrait of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout in 1623.
Graham’s needle portrait has gone on display in Shakepeares’s family home in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warks.
The micro-artist’s previous works include a miniscule portrait of Jane Austen and the world’s tiniest nativity scene.
Graham said engraving Shakespeare’s portrait was one of his most difficult challenges.
He said: “Creating this portrait of one of the world’s most iconic writers was a great challenge and achievement.
“Everybody knows Shakespeare’s portrait so it had to look absolutely perfect otherwise the project would have failed.
“I’m very happy with the results and hope people will enjoy viewing it.”
