The microscopic world became my obsession.

The microscopic world became my obsession.

When I was a kid, I had trouble at school because of my learning disabilities. Carving is my body compensating for the lack of other skills.

At school I'd want to be so small that nobody could see me, and so my work depicts and reflects me - what it felt like to grow up in a world of pain.

I became obsessed with making more and more tiny things. I think I was trying to find a way of compensating for my embarrassment at having learning difficulties: people had made me feel small so I wanted to show them how significant 'small' could be.

As a kid, I lived in a fantasy world. I used to believe ants could talk. Not once did they say thank you.

When I first heard that Barack Obama was going to be the first black president, I wanted to do the smallest, biggest tribute in history.