A pencil is usually a tool, but what happens when artists subvert its common usage, transforming it into a medium for sculpting instead? Extraordinary sculpting skills paired with a steady hand and a magnifying glass make it possible to carve amazingly tiny figures out of the pencil’s lead. Some artists see flowers or portraits in cast-off pencil shavings, or glue masses of the writing instruments together to sculpt and sand them into new forms punctuated by the graphite or colored pigments inside each pencil’s core.

Pencil Lead Carvings by Salavat Fidai

HBO Asia recently commissioned an incredible set of Game of Thrones-themed pencil lead carvings from Russian artist Salavat Fidai, including the sigils of each House, a White Walker, the dragons and the Iron Throne. It takes Fidai about 6 to 12 hours to sculpt each one using a craft knife, a magnifying glass and a microscope. The artist says the most challenging piece in the collection was the throne, which took over three weeks to perfect. Of course, the Game of Thrones pieces are just the latest works from Fidai, who has also carved tiny architecture, superheroes and other fictional characters, and much more.

Vases Made of Pencils by Studio Markunpoika

Hundreds of pencils are glued together into a solid mass and then carved on a machine lathe to create vases and other decorative objects, revealing the insides of the pencils. Studio Markunpoika describes their process: “‘Amalgamated’ is a collection which explores the relationship of a mass produced ‘tool’ and its individual purpose. The beauty of the pencil as an object seems to go unnoticed if utilized only for their primary purpose. ‘Amalgamated’ is a visual and tactile investigation using pencils as a raw material. This holistic principle has been the fundament for creating this set of vases; let the pencils become a thing themselves.”

Pencil Lead Carvings by Dalton Ghetti

The most impressive works by Dalton Ghetti are undoubtedly those which turn single pencil leads into chains. You can’t help but stare at each one for a while, wondering how he managed to pull them off. The fact that the artist has been refining his process since childhood might tell you a thing or two about how he’s able to pull pieces like these off – or that some of his pieces can take months or even years to complete. He also carves his tiny sculptures without the aid of a microscope or magnifying glass, using sewing needles and razor blades.

Pencil Sculptures by Jennifer Maestre

The colorful bristling creatures of Jennifer Maestre seem to have come from the depths of the sea, their appendages recalling the natural shapes of urchins, anemones, coral, octopi and jellyfish. The artist uses colored pencils as a medium for her unusual sculptures. “The spines of the urchin, so dangerous yet beautiful, serve as an explicit warning against contact. The alluring texture of the spines draws the touch in spite of the possible consequences. The tension unveiled, we feel push and pull, desire and repulsion. The sections of pencils present aspects of sharp and smooth for two very different textural and aesthetic experiences. Paradox and surprise are integral in my choice of materials.”

Pencil Lead Carvings by Cindy Chinn

Cindy Chinn takes advantage of the length of graphite contained within a pencil, tunnel-like inside the wood, and translates it into lines of marching elephants or trains. Her ‘Elephant Walk’ series was commissioned by the California-based Epiphany Elephant Museum. Of the train piece, Chinn says “This piece was designed using straight lead pieces for the rails, with the tiny carved train placed and securely glued on top of the rails. The train engine is only 3/16” of an inch tall. The pencil is 5-5/8” long and mounted in a wood shadowbox frame as shown in the photos.”

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Pencil Art 50 Sculptures Explore The Hidden Beauty Of This Utilitarian Object

Most of us don’t expect our writing instruments to do anything more than write. But after seeing the incredible things that these 14 pen and pencil designs can do, we might just raise our expectations. Going far beyond making a mark, these inventions can capture colors from your environment, measure curves, write through water and record lectures.

Color Picker Chameleon Pen Copies Colors

(image via: tuvie)

Artists sketching on the go would never have to worry about carrying around a full set of colored pencils, markers or pastels again if they had this handy gadget: the Color Picker. It’s a pen with a color sensor on one end that you can simply point at anything in your environment to instantly copy the color. The internal RGB inks mix to produce an exact match.

Write Through Water with Wet Surface Marker

(image via: inventables)

Not only will the ink in this Wet Surface Marker from Inventables stay crisp and clear when it gets wet – it will write through water. You can use it on wet surfaces.

Chromopen: Point & Shoot Tablet Pen

(image via: yanko design)

This concept is similar to the Color Picker, but it works in a much more realistic way: with a tablet computer. The Chromopen features a built-in camera that can capture colors, making it easy for digital artists to create extremely realistic replicas of the scenes they’re painting.

Construct-Your-Own Pendragon Pen

(image via: yanko design)

Put your own pen together using various components, to the length and curvature that you prefer. The Pendragon pen is much more than a writing instrument; it has a built-in lamp and comes with a dock so you can connect it to your computer and charge it. In addition to the nib, the central unit and the end part, there are expandable units including a camera, microphone, laser pointer, USB connector and WLAN receiver.

Inka Pen with a Pressurized Ink Chamber

(image via: yanko design)

This pen has a pressurized ink chamber that allows you to write smoothly from any angle, even if you’re writing upside down. It even works under water. It includes an integrated PDA stylus and closes up into a compact package when not in use.

Inkless Beta Pen Writes with Metal

(image via: vat19)

It writes like a pencil, but is permanent and smudge-proof like a pen – and you’ll never run out of ink. The Inkless Metal Beta Pen works by depositing tiny amounts of metal alloy onto your writing surface, and never requires sharpening or refills.

Sharpie Liquid Pencil – No More Broken Pencil Lead

(image via: sharpie)

Sharpie has come out with a new writing instrument that combines the erasability of a pencil with the smooth writing quality of a pen. The concept of the Liquid Pencil is interesting, but may require further refining, as consumers report a lot of problems with skipping.

Constrained Ball Drawing Aid

(image via: design boom)

Attach the ‘Constrained Ball’ to your pen and you can draw straight lines without using a ruler. Essentially, it stabilizes your pen while you’re writing using a brace and a tiny wheel. The tool also measures as you write, so you can create a line to the exact length that you need. It can draw lines horizontally and vertically, as well as in 45-degree angles.

LED Pen Ruler Traces Distances

(image via: monocomplex)

Plot a course or measure a curve with a handy LED pen ruler that records distances as you write. Shaped like a six-sided wood pencil, the pen ruler has a twisting end that allows you to choose your preferred unit of measurement, and includes a digital readout on the side.

Flat Bookmark Pen by Steve Yang Che-Hsiao

(image via: tuvie)

This bookmark pen concept by Steve Yang Che-Hsiao opens totally flat to hold your place in a book, with a clip keeping it secured. To use it as a pen, you simply fold it into a three-dimensional triangular shape.

Ball-Shaped Pen Support Helps the Disabled Write

(image via: yanko design)

This idea is incredibly simple, but it could make a huge difference for people who don’t have full muscular control of their hands. A pen or pencil is inserted into the center of an hourglass-shaped rubber knob, enabling the user to push the instrument around on  paper.

Spiral Chamber Holds Double the Ink

(image via: yanko design)

How do you fit more ink into a standard disposable pen? Make the cartridge a spiral. This concept, the T&T Pen-Ink Chamber, doubles the amount of ink in that comes in a pen, reducing plastic waste.

Pen + Sprayer: Write on Your Hand, Peel it Off

(image via: yanko design)

Have you ever written something important on your hand, like a phone number or a reminder, only to find that it has become unreadable after just an hour or two? Most of us occasionally turn to this tactic when there’s no paper around or we’re afraid we’ll forget something. The Pen + Sprayer concept makes it a little more practical, although it would be a bulky extra item to carry around on the off chance that you need it. It sprays a writable surface onto the palm of your hand, which can easily be peeled off when you no longer need it.

Continuous Pencil Never Ends

(image via: yanko design)

There’s nothing high-tech about this, but it’s still a smart design: the Continuous Pencil makes it easy to continue using stubs long after they’ve grown too short to comfortably hold. Once connected, you can simply continue sharpening the extended pencil until it’s too short again, and start over.

Our world has become so fast-paced these days. Most of the daily activities we used to engage in now have shortened versions, abbreviations of their former selves that save us time but disconnect us from the actual activities. One artist is getting back to a slower type of life by engaging in one of the most painstaking, slowest types of art he could find: miniature pencil carvings.

(images via: The Modern Artist)

Dalton Ghetti is a carpenter by trade, but he has loved carving since he was a small child. He began with tree bark and experimented with plenty of materials before finally settling on pencils. The graphite is easy to work with since it has no grain, but it allows for a large measure of interest for the artist due to its small size and delicate nature.

(images via: The Modern Artist)

Ghetti’s intricate carvings can take him weeks, months or even years to complete. But the artist is not worried about how many moments of his life that he spends sharpening pencils. These moments are almost like meditation for the man who takes life a little more slowly than the rest of us.

(images via: The Modern Artist)

The tiny and detailed carvings are created without the benefit of a magnifying glass. Ghetti uses sewing needles, razor blades and No. 2 or carpenter’s pencils to slowly carve out intricate shapes and scenes.

(images via: The Modern Artist)

Originally from Brazil but now residing in Connecticut, Dalton Ghetti uses his training as an architect and carpenter to inform his artistic process. While he does sometimes slip up and break a pencil, even these “failures” are beautiful to look at.

(images via: Dalton M. Ghetti)

Although there is plenty of interest in Ghetti’s carvings, he does not sell his pencil art. Fans do have a chance to own a bit of his work as he sells posters and postcards of his completed pieces, but don’t expect him to autograph your poster with the pen you have in your pocket; he is so dedicated to his material that he insists on signing his name in pencil.