World’s Strongest Man Tom Stoltman immortalised in astonishing micro-sculpture
ONE of Ross-shire’s most famous sons has been reimagined as you have never seen him before.
For three times World’s Strongest Man winner Tom Stoltman has been immortalised in microscopic form by a world-famous micro artist.
Big Tom stands 6ft 8in and tips the scales at around 190kg in real life.
But creator of the world’s smallest sculptures ever made by hand, Dr Willard Wigan M.B.E, has reimagined Tom by making a microscopic version of him deadlifting a barbell with weights made from 24 carat gold.
As Tom prepares to defend his title next month in Sacramento, he can add yet another accolade to his ever increasing list – this time for being one of the very few sportsmen sculpted by the micro artist.
For a number of years, Willard has championed children with learning differences because having autism himself he understands that our differences can be utilised rather than feared in order to achieve true greatness.
That's something that he shares with Tom, who also inspires countless people with his can do attitude, speaking if his autism as a superpower.
The finished sculpture is entitled, "The Strength of Autism" and features Tom standing on a tiny piece of granite.
Willard considers this latest piece to be the most significant of his entire collection and the incredible detail he's managed to achieve is mind-blowing.
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A photograph can never reflect the magnificence of the pieces that he makes because they are only capable of a very narrow depth of field, which often blurs the finer detail.
Willard recently said he believes Tom Stoltman will be the greatest strongman who ever lived.
Willard said: “Autism is a superpower, it’s a strength and I’m going to create the best piece I ever created, Tom Stoltman. And Tom, I know you’re going to be the greatest strongman in history, no question about it.”
He said he wanted to create the piece to pay tribute.
“He’s a great inspiration - it’s not just about watching him lift a weight, a heavy object. He’s lifting people, mentally. He’s lifting kids with autism here [points to his heart] and here [points to head] so they can see what they can do in their own way, with their own strength.”
It took him six long weeks to create.
Made from the heart and overcoming numerous challenges, such as individually crafting each eyeball measuring around two microns (a micron is 1000th of a millimetre, roughly the size of a single grain of milled flour) Willard has taken the levels of detail to a whole new level.
The commentary with a video about the project concludes: “Strength of Autism proves beyond all doubt that learning differences can be used as superpowers in order to achieve true greatness. But only by those who dare to dream.”
