Artisan creates miniature worlds in walnuts

For Bao Xiaodie, 32, in Changsha, Hunan province, a walnut holds a miniature fairly tale world — scenes handcrafted from clay in exquisite detail, which seemed impossible at first. But she gradually discovered the magic.

Bao's regular job is teaching clay modeling to primary school and kindergarten pupils. In December 2017, a woman found her online and offered to pay her to create a Christmas scene inside a walnut shell.

Bao's first reaction was to say no.

"It sounded too difficult. I used to make big clay art pieces. But a walnut is so small. I had to squeeze objects dozens of times to fit. It requires high technique," she said.

Bao failed many times, even at the first step. Walnut shells are fragile and easily broken, and that's what happened many times. To help with that problem, a friend mailed her a whole walnut shell, and she found she could work with it. Then she discovered that ordinary clay could not be used to make miniature objects inside the shell.

So she tried resin clay, floral clay and porcelain clay — anything waterproof, quick to form and able to be kept for a long time.Finally she completed her first piece: Inside the walnut shell, on the left, stands a Christmas tree with colorful lights and several gift boxes; on the right is a snowman with a red Christmas hat.

These were the beginnings of a tiny world that would gradually expand as her skills increased.That first customer was satisfied, Bao said. "And I also felt a great sense of achievement." The success opened a new frontier for her to explore.

Bao visited a number of markets in search of suitable walnuts — ones of good form and with thick shells. She found wild walnuts from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to be most suitable.

"We had to eat walnuts every day, and my husband and child didn't want to see the stuff anymore," she laughed.Nowadays, people seek her out to buy her walnut worlds.

It takes from one week to two months for her to make one. She will talk to the clients in advance to learn what scenes or emotions they want to reflect, or ask them for a photo.

"It requires great patience. I often make five or six models and select the best one to send to the client," she said.The most difficult thing is to keep the right proportions, especially the size of human figures, she said, adding that she wants to make more models showing architecture or natural scenery.

Zhu Youfang in Changsha contributed to this story.