Miniscule masterpiece: Artist creates world's smallest engraving in lettering small than a human blood cell

Master engraver Graham Short has created one of the world's smallest pieces of art - after carving a quotation onto a fleck of gold smaller than a human hair.

Graham, 67, spent 320 hours engraving a Bible quote in lettering smaller than a single human blood cell.

He even had to complete his four month minuscule masterpiece in the dead of night, to avoid traffic vibrations from the road near his Birmingham workshop.

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Talented Graham engraved the Bible quote, 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God' onto the fleck which sits inside the eye of a needle.

The committed craftsman had to take beta blockers and potassium in order to slow his heart so he can work on his designs between heartbeats.

The latest engraving, taken from the gospel of St Matthew, features letters no taller than three microns -  a human red blood cell is six microns across.

Collectors have been queuing up for the one-off artwork and one punter has already parted with a £100,000 for the fleck, which comes in a specially made display case featuring a built in microscope.

He even schedules regular botox injections around his eye to keep his muscles as steady as possible while working with finely honed Victorian needles.

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Yesterday (Thurs) the artist, who has previous engraved a message onto the sharp side of a razor blade, said: 'I don't think I can go any smaller than this.

'I really think this is my limit, not just because of how small it is but because of my age.

'I can only do four nights in a row and then I need a break of a few days of normal sleeping patterns.

'I do a lot of swimming as well — the fitter I am the slower my heart rate is.

'My workshop is a small building and I don’t go in till 10pm. I work at night because even the vibrations of a lorry going past in the day could cause me to make a big mistake.

'I wear a stethoscope and try to engrave in between heart beats. I only have to move slightly and I have to start over from the beginning, the vibrations from a truck two blocks away will cause a mistake.

'I must have lost at least 30 flecks of gold while making this one, they are so small that I get down on my hands and knees and it's lost in the carpet never to be seen again.

'But gold is much nicer to work with than steel, if you make a mistake you can easily smooth the gold down because it is so soft.

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Graham will head to America shortly for an exhibition of artworks over there, he recently sold out an exhibition in Scotland, with collectors from all over the world coming to buy his art.

His previous work includes a carving the Lord's Prayer onto a pin head and every England World Cup goal-scorer on to the bottom of a football stud.