Snow White in eye of a needle

It's an operation that would challenge the poise of the world's most talented micro-surgeons, but miniaturist sculptor Willard Wigan takes it all in his steady-handed stride.

Want a sculpture of the Beckham family fashioned from the end of a cocktail stick? No problem. This 44-year-old Birmingham-born artist specialises in creating minute works of art, which have to be viewed through a microscope.

Among his works on display at the Impossible Microworld museum, which opens today in Covent Garden market, are Goldilocks and the three bears carved on cocktail sticks, made when he was only 12.

Elsewhere is a polar bear created from a grain of wood one millimetre high and a microscopic Samson splitting a human hair. But perhaps the most impressive, and the one of which Mr Wigan is obviously most proud, is Snow White and the seven dwarfs placed in the eye of a needle. "I create art that is beyond belief," said Mr Wigan, who is working on creating The Last Supper inside a human hair. "People are shocked. They see my sculptures and can't believe that they exist. My work is like a message that people should never underestimate other people."

It takes more than two months of work with customised surgical scalpels at his Jersey studio for Mr Wigan to produce one of the tiny pieces. The works on display at the museum, housed in a former puppet theatre, are displayed through microscopes at between 15 and 200 times their actual size.

Museum owner Basil Snook, 52, said: "I went to see Willard's museum in Bath last year and straight away I knew I had to bring it to London. I was just so amazed by the spirituality of it."

Mr Wigan worked as a wood carver until his extraordinary ability was recognised two years ago. He opened his first museum in Bath in 1999. Mr Wigan, who is dyslexic, said: "I had learning difficulties and I didn't fit in at school. My teachers used to make fun of me. I began creating small sculptures at the age of six. As I got older I realised that I could make smaller and smaller things. I do this work as a challenge to myself."

For more information about the museum visit the website at www.TheImpossibleMicroworld. com or call 0207 240 2120.