Wigan 'micro-artist' creates Royal tribute pendant

The Queen has been very much in the spotlight of late, first due to the passing of her consort Prince Philip and then the recent low-key marking of Her Majesty’s 95th birthday.

Both events were in mind when Wigan micro-artist Hedley Wiggan set about creating this tiny commemorative cameo pendant.

Using a single hair of a paintbrush, a jeweller’s eyepiece and the steadiest of hands, Hedley laboured for a week to complete the two-sided design in oils, one face showing a smiling monarch and the other one of her beloved pet corgis.

Hedley said: “The loss of the Duke of Edinburgh to the Queen was certainly at the forefront of my thoughts when creating this.

“But so too was the unconditional love that dogs give to humans in many testing times, which is why I put a corgi on the reverse of the pendant. Dogs or cats can be a great comfort when you lose someone.”

Hedley’s pieces, which including microscopic carvings on the ends of cocktail sticks and paintings large and small, are now being sold around the world.

The royal work, which will eventually be for sale, still needs to have glass protection put over the images and it will also be fitted into a mounting which allows it to rotate - as was the case with a double-sided pendant featuring the late singer Prince which Hedley created several months ago.

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