Joly’s Travels
Inspired by the famous tales of ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ as a child, Hampshire born Nik Joly creates unique sculptures with tiny people to capture a mood or a feeling.
Joly studied at The Winchester School of Art and during that time produced works of glass and bronze before enrolling at John Makepeace’s college to take up an apprenticeship in furniture design.
Joly began designing the miniature sculptures as a hobby for his children in 2005 but news quickly travelled of his particular talents and he soon became overrun with requests and orders mainly from people who wanted to be immortalised in miniature.
“Some wanted me to make a family portrait, some even wanted a model based on a funny experience they’d had. One woman commissioned me to recreate an occasion where she’d become stuck while retrieving her keys from a drain. My models became little bits of theatre.”
Despite their tiny proportions the sculptures require a mammoth amount of work as they are carefully and precisely made from clay, wire and paper as well as odd bits and bobs that he finds useful. He moulds and paints all the figures by hand “it can take between four days to a week to complete each piece depending on how complicated they are.”
Many of Joly’s pieces are thought provoking and humorous although Joly isn’t scared of taking on more sombre issues. To mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War, Joly created ‘Never Forgotten’ a series of miniature soldiers supporting actual sized remembrance poppies.
“In my own small way I strive to create my own worlds and sculptures to ask and bring to the forefront the dilemmas and questions that we all feel and face day to day, as well as highlight the madness around us”.
