Hedley Wiggan, a forty-nine year old dad from Tonge Moor in Bolton, has sculpted a tribute to the cartoonists who were shot at 'Charlie Hebdo' as fellow men and artists. A miniatures artist by trade, Wiggan etched a picture of a man holding a sword outwards in the teeny tiny lead of a pencil. The wider width of the pencil emphasises the message that the ‘pen is mightier than the sword'. After spending days carving the image with a microscope or a magnifying glass, Wiggan produced a work that he feels honours the victims of the extremist attack: “The events in Paris were devastating so I just thought I would do something to say the pen is mightier” he told the 'Manchester Evening News'. “It is a statement. It represents the freedom of the written word (…) Paris is the city of love and I have friends out there. It has affected everyone.” Wiggan has already been invited to exhibit his range of miniature pencil carvings at a show in Paris and hopes to include this one. I could even “auction it off for a charity over there” he commented. A theatre technician at Wigan Royal Infirmary, Hedley will now join millions of others in the world-wide 'je suis Charlie' solidarity movement.
