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Willard Wigan creates Shakespeare micro-sculpture to mark 400th anniversary

Artwork has been placed in the eye of a needle and depicts the playwright striking a celebratory pose

Willard Wigan's micro-sculpture of Shakespeare(Image: Pic: Daniel McClane/PA Wire)

It is not much ado about something - because the Bard's big anniversary is no big deal for Willard Wigan.

The a microscopic sculpture of William Shakespeare to mark the 400th anniversary of his death.

The artwork has been placed in the eye of a needle and depicts the playwright striking a celebratory pose dressed in a teal tunic and purple stockings, with an Elizabethan-style frame underneath and the words "To see or not to see".

Sculpted out of kevlar and fragments of cable tie, Mr Wigan used 24-carat gold for the frame around the quote. It was painted using a floating fibre plucked from the air as a paintbrush and polished to a shine using microscopic fragments of diamonds.

The tiny Shakespeare, which took four weeks to create, is part of an exhibition of Wigan's work at the Light House Media Centre, in Wolverhampton, celebrating key figures from the Midlands.

Mr Wigan, who was born in Wednesfield, said: "I had to control my heartbeat and the pulse movements in my fingers to create this piece. It took every ounce of my skill and took a lot out of me.

"Like me, Shakespeare was from the Heart of England, and his work made Britain lead the way, culturally, for the whole world.

"When we realised the exhibition would be taking place during the anniversary, the team at Light House asked me to create a special piece and I worked day and night to get it completed.