Way.
"All Work Hand Carved From One Block Of Wood And Hand Painted"
How the heck does he do that?
It gets more ridiculous yet, look at this. How can he carve and paint that?
Update: Philocalist points to this, which I just refuse to believe was made by human hands.
In the museum in Darlington, there is (well, was, when I was a kid, hope it's still there!) an ivory sphere, about the size of a tennis ball, maybe a little smaller.
ReplyDeleteIt's hollow, no more than a couple of millimeters thick, and flawlessly carved over the entire surface into a fine, filigree type, oriental pattern.
It contains another, similar sphere, which in turn contains another ... and another, and another .... NINE spheres in all, each one intricately carved, apparently THROUGH the filigree patterns of the exteror sphere(s) ... the entire construction is from a single piece of ivory, no joins etc.
Very, very old too ... as they say, nothin' new under the sun'! :-)
From what I get from what you describe, that sounds physically impossible.
ReplyDeleteHow do you even *see* the inner spheres through the tiny holes?
I agree, it does sound impossible :-) I can remember first seeing this as a young child, and returning many times over the next ten years or so ... the museum was a goldmine for me, particularly on wet days!
ReplyDelete3 things stick in my mind: a massive stuffed polar bear, unbelievably tall; a bee hive designed as a flat construction on a wall and made from glass so that you could watch everything (I wonder how many hours I stood, trying to find the Queen bee?) ... and this ball, which has always fascinated me.
At the time, its construction had been investigated and confirmed by some university or other, and was re-affirmed in my recent times using X-rays and various NDT methods.
It would seem that whilst being as rare as hens teeth, it's not unique as there are a (very) few others similar to it dotted around the world, with one in the National Palace Museum with TWENTY ONE individual layers!!!
http://culture.teldap.tw/culture/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=167&Itemid=46
Little was known about them and how they were actually made, though they could apparently be duplicated now ... with some serious technologicall assistance!
Originals were evidently showpieces that were a labour of love by extremely talented (and patient!) jewellers of that era.
Thanks. That's just insane.
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