Pencil Art

All artists have a favorite medium to work with - For American artist Jennifer Maestre its pencils. The 49-year old specializes in creating stunning one-of-a-kind pencil sculptures that are inspired by sea urchins and nature in general.

Jen's love for using pointy objects to create her pieces of art began while she was still at the Massachusetts School of Arts. During her last year, she began using nails to create her sculptures - while they became more complicated as years went by, she was not satisfied in how they turned out and started to look for other sharp, low tech objects to work with. About ten years ago, she stumbled upon a sharpened pencil and has never looked back since.

The Concorde resident starts by cutting hundreds of sharpened pencils into one-inch pieces - effectively turning them into what she refers to as 'beads'. She then drills a hole into each one so that she can stitch them together.

The artist says there is no exact science to her creations. She starts with an image in mind and makes lost of mistakes during the process - in fact it is these that are sometimes her biggest source of inspiration in coming up with something totally unique.

Jen, whose creations sell for thousands of dollars, loves what she does and says that her mind is always brimming with new ideas for her tiny sharpened colorful pencils. To see more pictures of her amazing work check out her website at www.jennifermaestre.com.

sources:telegraph.co.uk,jennifermaestre.com,webdesignerdepot.com