Here's something excellent: American artist Stan Munro, a self-titled "toothpicker," replicates the world's most extraordinary buildings with crazy detail, each model made of only wooden toothpicks and Elmer's glue. Spotted in Munro's "Toothpick World" are the Space Needle, the Taj Mahal, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the Eiffel Tower, the Pantheon, and even North Korea's unfinished Ryugyong Hotel. Each building, from the 10-foot-8-inch One World Trade Center to the 14-inch Statue of Liberty (both seen over at Curbed NY) sticks to a strict 1:164 scale.
So how exactly does one become a master of toothpick craft? Well, it takes time, for starters. Munro's first project, "Toothpick City I," which he sold in 2006 to a museum in Spain, took the artist-engineer "almost 2 years, full-time, limited potty breaks." The first building he tackled, NYC's Chrysler building, took six months alone. (His fastest, the Washington Monument, took a day, he says.) According to Inhabitat, Munro made that Chrysler replica for his wife, who at the time was ill at the time. His wife recovered, though Munro still signs all of his buildings: "I luv Suzi."
· See NYC Monuments Made from Millions of Toothpicks [Curbed NY]
· Man Builds One World Trade Center Out of Toothpicks for His Wife Suzi [Inhabitat]