Most of us remember that moment, especially in school, when you were writing with your pencil in full flow and the nib would just break… maybe because you put too much pressure or maybe for no reason at all.
Now imagine carving entire names and faces into that narrow graphite strip.
Sounds tedious, if not impossible. But Coimbatore based M Savithru makes carving entire names and even faces onto the narrow graphite cylinder in pencils look super easy.
The three wise monkeys
A micro sculpture of Che Guevara
The 24-year-old fashion technology graduate has been making micro art for over a year now – and he does this not just on pencils, but on chalk pieces, soap, fruits and vegetables too.
Savithru graduated in 2016 and has been practicing soap carving from the first year of college. His department supported his passion and he even carved and gave mementos to several guests they would have. But he realised this was something he could capitalise on, only in his final year, when he got a bulk order from Decathlon stores to carve their logo in soap.
Soap carvings
Now, two years later, Savithru has a Facebook page ‘Will Lift’, where he puts up photos of his creations. And the pencil carvings are something to behold.
However, considering how easy it is to break a pencil nib, does it get frustrating to make a carving? Not for Savithru, who only uses a pencil knife to work with the graphite.
Pikachu (a Pokemon character) into a pencil
A carving Savithru made for International Yoga Day
“It does get challenging if the sculpture people have requested is more than 3 mm in height. Most of the orders I get are from people wanting me to carve the face as well as name of a person into the pencil, which takes more space,” Savithru shares. “The trick is to not chip away the wood all at once… I carve two letters and then I make enough space for the next two. That gives some stability.”
It usually takes him only 45 minutes to carve up to five letters. A face and name combination can take him about 3-4 hours.
So far, it’s only his friends circle where Will Lift is popular. “I am not doing any advertising. So, I get only about 15 orders in a month… Most of them are for birthdays and gift purposes,” Savithru says.
His recent project has been to conduct workshops in colleges and orphanages. “I teach them pencil and soap carving not just because it’s a fun activity, but also because I want them to be able to sell their creations and be self-reliant,” Savithru says.
Savithru conducting a workshop