Artist Engraves Tiny Lord’s Prayer In Eye of Needle
Written by G Njuguna on February 2, 2023
One artist in Birmingham, England, is garnering international attention for engraving the Lord’s Prayer onto a speck of gold inserted into the eye of a needle.
Just finished! The Lord’s Prayer engraved by hand on a chunk of gold hammered into the eye of a needle. This is the piece I want to be remembered by – but hopefully, not yet for a while! pic.twitter.com/9kmVCVvOl3
— Graham Short (@GrahamShortArt) January 27, 2023
Graham Short, 76, is known for these kinds of microscopic creations, but it’s this latest piece for which he wants to be remembered. It consists of 273 letters, each only half the width of a human hair.
In addition to the Lord’s Prayer engraving, Short is known for etching what is thought to be the tiniest nativity scene into the eye of a needle as well as an image of the late Queen Elizabeth II onto a pinhead.
Short’s work is so intricate, in fact, he uses beta blockers to slow his heart rate while he’s working with a microscope, which he does at night because there are fewer vibrations from the traffic.
“If a [truck] went past outside,” he told the BBC, “it would feel like an earthquake through the microscope.”
