Microscopic art

Sometimes it's good to blog off topic. I was watching a doco last night when it introduced the remarkable topic of art made out of microscopic plankton. That's right, the image you can see to the right is made out of really tiny microscopic plankton, called diatoms, each carefully placed to make the pattern you see.  British artist Klaus Kemp laboriously creates these patterns by picking and placing the diatoms using threads of glass under a microscope. However, surprisingly it turns out this was a popular Victorian pass time. You can see how it's done in the video below - I doubt I'd have the patience.

The Diatomist from Matthew Killip on Vimeo.