“At school, I carved my friends’ names on pencils and gave them as gifts,” says the 49-year-old sculptor. “Later, when I took up sculpture, I started making figures like this out of pencils, but I decided to test myself and make miniatures.”
"I experimented with various materials, for example, with chalk, but one day it dawned on me and I decided to cut out shapes from pencils"
Dalton spent the most time on a pencil with chains - two and a half years.
A standard figure takes several months to complete. “The hardest part was making these chains, and I liked it because the sculpture is so skillful that people think it’s two pencils.”
Dalton Getty works very slowly. He does not use any special equipment: to work, he only needs a blade, a sewing needle and a very bright light. To protect his eyesight, the author works no more than an hour and a half a day.
One tiny sculpture can take several months, and the creation of the already mentioned alphabet took Dalton 2.5 years. “When I tell people how long it takes me to create sculptures, they just don’t believe me,” Getty says. “My patience just amazes people because nowadays everyone wants to be faster and faster and faster.”
The author began to get involved in carving at the age of 8 years. He tried to cut out figures from the wooden part of a pencil, soap, chalk, but eventually settled on graphite. According to Dalton, this is the ideal material: it is soft and not as grainy as wood.
Dalton is confident that his sculptures force people to stop at least for a few moments, to break out of the frantic rhythm modern life and see beauty in miniature details.
The pencil is usually a writing and drawing tool, but what happens when artists change the way they think about its use and use it as a material for creating sculptures?
Unique sculpting skills combined with a steady hand and a magnifying glass allow you to carve amazing miniature figures from pencil lead. Some artists see flowers and portraits in pencil shavings, or glue pencils together to then create new shapes that reveal the graphite or colored pigments located inside each pencil.
Pencil lead carving by Salavat Fiday 
HBO Asia recently released amazing set Game of Thrones themed pencils with leads carved by Russian artist Salavat Fidai into the shape of each House symbol, White Walkers, dragons and the Iron Throne. To carve one such object, Fidai requires 6 to 12 hours, as well as a professional cutter, magnifying glass and microscope. The artist says the most difficult object in the collection was the throne, which took three weeks to complete. Naturally, objects from “Game of Thrones” are only last works Fidaya, who also carved tiny architectural objects, superheroes, etc. fictional characters and so on. 
Hundreds of pencils are glued together, and then vases and other decorative objects are cut from them on a lathe, in which the internal structure pencils. Studio Markunpoika describes the process this way: “Amalgamation is the combination of several objects into one and the use of the resulting material for specific purpose. The beauty of a pencil cannot be seen if it is used strictly for its intended purpose. Amalgamation is a visual and tactile examination in which a pencil is used as the primary material. This holistic principle served as the basis for creating vases - allowing the pencils to become an object themselves.”
Dalton Getty pencil lead carving 
Dalton Ghetti's most impressive works are, without a doubt, those where single pencil leads are turned into a chain. You can stare at them for a long time, trying to understand how he managed to cut and connect the individual links of the chain. The fact that the artist has been improving his system since childhood may explain how he is able to carve such details, and also that some of them take months and even years to complete. Moreover, he creates his sculptures without the aid of a microscope or magnifying glass, using sewing needles and razor blades.
Pencil sculptures by Jennifer Maestre 
Jennifer Maestre's colorful, bristling creatures appear to have risen from the depths of the sea, their appendages reminiscent of the natural forms of urchins, anemones, corals, octopuses and jellyfish. The artist uses colored pencils to create unusual sculptures. “The hedgehog's spines, so dangerous but beautiful, serve as a warning against unwanted contact. The seductive structure of the thorns beckons you to touch them, despite possible consequences. The tension grows, we feel attraction and repulsion at the same time. Sections of pencils combine two structures - sharp and smooth, giving rise to different aesthetic and textural experiences. Paradoxicality and surprise are integral requirements in my choice of materials."
Pencil lead carving by Cindy Chinn
Cindy Chinn uses the entire length of the lead contained inside the pencil, as well as the tunnel hole itself inside the wooden frame, turning them into a line of walking elephants or a train with carriages. Her series “Elephant Walk” was commissioned by the California Elephant Museum. About the train, Chin says, “It consists of guide rails and a tiny train that is cut out and firmly glued to the surface of the rails. The size of the locomotive is only 4.76 mm. The length of the pencil is 14 cm, and the train is in a long wooden tunnel, as can be seen in the photo.”
Delicate flowers made from pencil shavings by Haruka Misawa
For Haruka Misawa, unexpected beauty can be hidden even in the shavings left behind from sharpening pencils, which reminded her of blooming flowers. Following this discovery, the artist began making her own pencils to enhance the effect of the likeness by curling the paper so that it resembled a pencil and then “sharpening” the ends. She adds color transitions to the paper before printing it, lays a special color paste on the surface, and then wraps the paper around the “core” to form a “pencil.” After which the artist creates “chips” whose diameter is only 15 mm-40 mm.
Pencil lead carving by Dim Chau 
Diem Chau often creates natural objects and images, such as plants and animals, from pencil lead. This is, for example, a raven or an elephant, which can be seen in the photo, but the artist is also known for other mini-sculptures carved from pencil. In particular, she was inspired to create the elephant figurine by photographs of Jimmy John Liautaud, the founder of the network fast food Jimmy John's killing endangered elephants on safari in Africa. About the elephant she says: “I wanted to do something beautiful and sad. I feel his loneliness."
Jessica Drenk's pencil sculptures 
It's only when you look inside Jessica Drenk's organic-looking sculptures that you realize what they're made of: the pencils here remain virtually untouched and are quite recognizable, while those along the outside of the sculptures have been carved and sanded to create unusual new shapes. . To create each sculpture, Drenk uses an electric grinder, each time being hit by shards of exploding graphite. “Transforming familiar objects into forms, inspired by nature“I study how we categorize the world around us,” she says. “Man-made objects look like they were created by nature, something functional takes on the appearance of something decorative, a simple material becomes complex, and a banality becomes unique.”
Portraits from pencil shavings by Kylie Bean 
British artist and designer Kyle Bean is not known to most for his works of pencil shavings, but usually collaborates with the authors of “live” photography to create playful humorous images for printed publications and commercial projects. But many of his works involve "unusual uses of ordinary materials and hand-crafted techniques." This can be seen in a series of portraits made from pencil shavings that he created specifically for Wallpaper Magazine.
Carving on pencil lead by Yasenko Dordevich 
Bosnian artist Jasenko Dordevic saw Dalton Ghetti's work and was inspired to try his hand at slate carving, resulting in similar intricate sculptures that require viewing through a magnifying glass to better see all the details. He prefers to use medium-hard leads because, he says, “They're both hard and brittle. When working with black lead, you need to be very careful, as the slightest inattention can lead to it starting to crack.”
Many artists used pencils in their work. But Dalton Getty creates miniature masterpieces literally on the tip of a pencil. Dalton's main profession is a carpenter, but creating miniature figurines from slate has fascinated him for the last 25 years.
At school, I would cut out friends' names in pencils and make gifts out of them. Later, when I became interested in sculpture and began carving large figures from wood, I became interested in how much I could reduce my creations. I tried to create mini-sculptures from small pieces of wood and coal, and one day I thought of making them from pencils,” says the 49-year-old master.
To create his works, Getty uses three main tools - a razor, a sewing needle and a cutter. He doesn't even use a magnifying glass, but simply, in his own words, "picks the pencil with a needle, turning it in his hand." Dalton never sells the resulting works - he only gives them to friends.
This figure is also the result of working with one pencil, although the artist wanted to create the impression that 2 pencils were used. The master spent two and a half years creating it. He happily talks about how this is his most difficult job.
When I first started making figures from pencil leads, they kept breaking, and it really pissed me off. I would worry, then make one careless move and months of work would go into the trash. At some point, I realized my mistake and radically changed my attitude towards work. Now, when I start carving, I immediately assume that the lead will break sooner or later, and I'll just see how far I can go. And, you know, it helped a lot. Pencils still break, but much less frequently, and I'm no longer upset about it at all. This is life,” says Getty.
The artist lived in Brazil before moving to the United States. At home, he keeps a box of more than a hundred broken pencils that are especially dear to him, which he affectionately calls his “graveyard collection.”
Dalton grins: “I have plenty unfinished work. At some point I decided that they shouldn't just lie around, so I secured them together with pins. Some people might think it's weird to keep broken junk, but I like to think that even though they're dead now, at some point in time I breathed life into them."
In total, Dalton has about a hundred works of varying complexity. IN Lately he's working on an action figure inspired by the tragic events of 9/11.
I want to cut out one tear for each of the 3,000 who died that day, and together they will form one big tear. I've been cutting out a tear a day since 2002. Thus, I expect to spend about 10 years on the entire project - a long time, but it’s worth it,” says Dalton.
I do this not for money, but for myself and my loved ones. Although, of course, I would be happy if the owner of some gallery could arrange an exhibition of my works,” says the artist.
Living in Brazil, carpenter Dalton Ghetti was never bored at school - during this time he carved the names of his friends on pencils.
Much later, after experimenting with stone, wood, soap, candles, chalk and even broom handles, he became interested in creating miniature sculptures from pencil leads.
This is what he has been doing for a quarter of a century. Dolton does not use a magnifying glass or special tools in his work. Getty cuts out the figures using a razor blade and a sewing needle.
The work itself is so painstaking - the eyes get tired that the master cannot devote more than an hour a day to it. He usually does this after his main carpentry classes.
Dolton sometimes takes up to two years to create one miniature, for example, a figurine of a giraffe
or a chain made of pencil lead.
Many people think it's two pencils, but the chain is made from one pencil core.
No less remarkable is the portrait of Elvis Presley
or hearts cut out in the middle of a pencil.
Dolton Getty worked on his alphabet for several years, cutting out about one letter per month.
It often happened that one wrong move and the miniature was irretrievably lost.
At first, the master took it very seriously that painstaking work wasted.
But over the years, he learned to be philosophical about it. He prepares himself in advance for the fact that the sculpture may break. An artist from Brazil does not throw away his damaged works.
He created a kind of memorial out of them. He already has more than a hundred such leftovers, they are stored on a polystyrene foam stand as a reminder of the time and diligence spent.
Dolton Getty himself says that his best day is when there is little slate dust and no debris on the table. He has many plans, after the terrorist attack on September 11, he creates one tear from graphite every morning. Getty expects that within ten years he will be able to complete this work in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack and create one big tear from 3,000 thousand tears.
The master does not sell his work; he considers this activity a pleasure, a hobby, and a kind of meditation. He gives some miniatures to artist friends, and in return from them he receives blanks for future works - leftover pencils. Getty admits that he sometimes uses found pencil stubs.
Daulton Getty loves to participate in exhibitions, the next one will be held at the New Britain Museum of American Art on August 29. He says that he loves his work, does it with all his heart and wants, with his passion for miniatures, to attract the attention of other people to them.