Pencil Carving Art

Submission 17,786

About

Pencil Carving Art is the practice of carving wooden and graphite sculptures out of pencil writing utensils.

Origin

The exact origin of carved pencil art is unknown, though some of the early pioneers include Brazilian artist Dalton Ghetti, who began carving pencils as early as 1986 according to his website’s bio page,^[1] and Japanese artist Mizuta Tasogare, who created a honeycomb-patterned pencil sculpture (shown below) in the fall of 1987, as featured in the JAD Project Internet Museum.^[2]

Spread

In 1997, the woodcarving hobbyist website Carvers Companion^[4] posted an article about the craft, highlighting several photographs of pencils carved by artist Tony Wipinski (shown below, left). On August 23rd, 2003, author Clifford Pickover published an article about pencil carving on his website Reality Carnival,^[5] showcasing several examples of carved pencil art (shown below, right).

On April 28th, 2007, Ebaums World Forums^[6] member Natedawg1848 created a pencil carving art thread. On February 11th, 2007, The New York Times^[3] published an article about artist Dalton Ghetti, who was quoting saying he appreciates carving pencil graphite because it is a “very homogeneous material.” On August 4th, 2010, YouTuber jkumar Bj uploaded a slideshow of Ghetti’s carved pencils (shown below, left). On August 28th, 2010, YouTuber LordSaves uploaded another slideshow featuring the artist's works (shown below, right).

On November 24th, 2011, DeviantArtist^[7] cerkahegyzo uploaded a photograph of a pencil carved in the shape of a spiral (shown below). In the next six months, cerkahegyzo uploaded over 50 photographs of additional pencil carvings.^[8]

On February 6th. 2012, YouTuber Julius Campo uploaded a time lapse video that shows the carving of “I <3 U” on the graphite portion of a pencil (shown below, left). On November 12th, YouTuber Vilas Lakkabathini uploaded another time lapse carving video featuring footage of a man recreating Ghetti’s hanging key graphite sculpture (shown below, right). On March 1st, the Internet news blog Laughing Squid^[9] highlighted sveral of DeviantArtist cerkahegyzo’s photographs.