Minuscule objects made by Giang Nam with his naked eye

A painstaking hobby earns more than a teeny-weeny sum for this former cop.

In that relatively short time, he has produced almost 300 works of art, many of them subsequently making their way abroad.

The price range is enormous, from under VND50,000 (US$2.80) up to $3,000 apiece.

Nam’s subjects come from everyday life. They can be insects, flowers, animals, vehicles such as bicycles, pedicabs, old scooters, or a farmer carrying rice. There’s even a muscular bodybuilder the size of a match tip.

“I study applied arts at university, so I stick with real-life things. Whenever I make something, I try to work out what sort of person it is intended for and what purpose it might serve,” said the 30-year-old artist.

His house on Tan Khai Street in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 11 is near a small market selling bits and pieces of old electrical appliances.

“It used to be easy finding scrap bronze and such, but now I have to buy it. Fortunately I live next to the market.

“I mainly use bronze as it’s durable yet malleable. Its hues, which are more distinct than you get with iron or lead, can combine in harmonious ways.”

Nam was an avid painter in his childhood.

His interest in crafting miniatures was piqued when he set his eyes on a tiny Eiffel Tower that a Russian artist had crafted on the tip of a needle, but he shelved his desire to do the same for the time being.

When his mobile police team was posted to HCMC’s suburban district of Binh Chanh with its mosquito-infested swamps and canals, he caught some of the insects and observed them intently for days before crafting a mosquito as a gift for his comrades.

The mosquito was so lifelike that when Nam had finished it and put it on the table, one of his friends almost slapped it.

After leaving the police force, Nam went to the HCMC University of Architecture as he had long wished to study the arts formally.

It was here that he began crafting miniatures but they didn’t sell well in the beginning as they lacked “substance and soul,” Nam said. But he soon learned how to make them vividly lifelike.

“We must be passionate about our work and not merely imitate what others have done. Records are nothing unreachable, they are what we have and what we observe in life,” he said, referring to his 2007 entry in the Vietnam Book of Records.

It usually takes Nam from one week to one month to finish a piece. He works every day but only from seven until 11 in the morning, when the natural light is at its best.

His most time-consuming miniature of all is not yet finished. It’s a statuette of a person squatting with the arms clasping the knees and measures less than two millimeters from top to bottom.

Nam has been at it for three years now, as he only works on the tiny man when he is in the mood.

Unlike other sculptors of miniatures, Nam makes his without the aid of a magnifying glass or a microscope except to check the finished pieces for any flaws.

His most unforgettable work is a seven-millimeter scooter that took him five months to produce.

It has everything that a real scooter has, right down to the wheel rims, lights and brake cables, and even sports a Vespa logo. The license plate and the logo alone each took him one month to make.

Besides bronze and the occasional gold, he has tried his hand at sculpting in stone, but without success. The medium just doesn’t seem to suit him somehow.

“I was making a replica of Michelangelo’s ‘David’ and was almost done when the head came off, so I threw the whole thing away. I regret it now. If I had kept the statue, it would be valuable now,” Nam said.

He’s a busy young man what with university classes, teaching an art class, and holding down another part-time job, but he always makes time for his hobby.

For now, Nam’s miniatures are immobile decorations but his bi ambition is to make them much more realistic, and even make practical use of them.

“The ants, beetles, the cyclo will be able to move and the flies will act as detectives (by carrying cameras and making their way into secret corners to spy, for example). I believe I can do it.”

Reported by Diem Thu