A vendor at a market in Paris handed artist Talwst an antique ring box and said, ‘I want to see you do something with this.’ From that chance encounter has sprung an entire collection of tiny miniature scenes that fit inside these compact little containers, with minuscule figurines and painted backdrops replacing the expected jewels when you open the lids.

The Toronto-based artist depicts everything from surreal scenes, like a couple and a snake on the moon in ‘Space Family Rothschild,’ to historic current events like the death of Michael Brown, in which a group of police officers shoot off their guns with cotton smoke.

The humorous ‘Banksy Is Your Gran’ (top image) reveals the true identity of England’s most famous anonymous street artist, while ‘Errrbody loves McDonalds’ shows a horse and cart in the foreground with an incongruous fast food sign visible within the trees.

“I like to capture memories and fleeting moments,” says Tawlst. “They feel all the more moving because of their fugitive nature. I want the viewer to open the box and feel they have been transported to another world.”