Nikolai Syadristy’s Museum of Microminiature 
Photo1. Parallel world. 6.5 mm long artifact made with gold. Photo2. SANTA MARIA. 3,85 mm long model consisting of 256 golden parts. Photo3. Nikolai Syadristy.
Address: Bld. 5, 21, I. Mazepa’s Street, Kiev
Tel: +38 (044) 280-81-37
Opening Hours: 10:00 - 13:30; 14:30 - 17:00
Closed on Monday.
The world's smallest book is stored here. The fact is officially recorded in Guinness Book of Records. There most of compositions are created in the half of poppy seed. There Egyptian pharaoh rushes through the eye of a needle. Nikolai Syadristy is the author of mini-miracles. His name has been already entered in the history of world art.
There are four microminiatures museums in the world. The museums are located in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, in Moscow, in Szentendre (Hungary) and in the dwarf mountain principality of Andorra, which looks like a miniature too. The museums are founded thanks to the world famous talent of Nikolai Syadristy. Nikolai Syadristy is the man who really shoed a flea. And this flea with horseshoes on is also exhibited here.
Nikolai Syadristy was born in Kharkiv region in 1937. After graduating from the Kharkiv Art College he entered the Kharkiv Agricultural Institute. Mastering the technique of miniatures making and getting famous for his masterpieces Nikolai Syadristy continued to work as an agronomist. Later he worked as an engineer at the Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Syadristy is a fully endowed personality. He was the master of sports in the USSR, as well as the absolute champion of Ukraine in diving. Nikolai is a quite good poet. Every his work exhibited in museum is illustrated with the samples of his poems.
Syadristy has been creating masterpieces in the style of miniatures for more than four decades. Actually he is the creator of this trend in art. Could you have thought about it? Kievans and visitors of Kiev have a great opportunity to come into contact with the works of a man that has already been included to the annals of world art.
Your idea about the human capacity to work with small objects and forms will be changed with the microminiatures made by Syadristy. Syadeisty is often asked what knowledge and skills one must possess to perform such work. And Nikolai answers: "One should have some knowledge and experience in drawing, making composition as well as in the plastic arts. You should be able to understand thoroughly the properties of all materials with which you work. You must have good command of your body because the most subtle movements of the hand holding a tool must be made between your heartbeats.
What can be seen in the Kievan Museum of miniatures? You will be amazed with the description of each microminiature as the scale there is not measurable in millimeters. Actually it is measurable in thousandths of a millimeter. Have a look at "Rose in the hair", for example. There is the cavity drilled inside the human hair along its length. It is polished to transparency. A rose branch with thickness of 0,05 mm is inserted into the cavity.
A caravan of golden camels is set in the eye of the needle hinting on the well-known phrase from the New Testament that it is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the heavenly kingdom. Nearby you can see a man walking on anchoring hairs taken from the wristwatch. The thickness of the figurine is 5 microns!
You can see the world's tiniest book too. That is Kobzar by Shevchenko. Its size is 0,6 mm. There are 12 pages of poems and drawings in the book. Its pages are sewn ... with cobweb. Its cover is an immortelle petal actually.
There are also sheet music parts. A fragment of polonaise by Oginsky is engraved on the glassy chrysanthemum petal. Its area is 2 x 5 mm. The artist is fond of ballet. That is why you can see a portrait of the great ballet dancer Maya Plisetskaya. Nicholas Syadristy made her portrait on a piece of cherry stone with its area of 3 x 4 mm.
And can you imagine the model of the windmill consisting of 203 golden items set on half of a poppy seed? Actually Nicholas Syadristy possesses good knowledge not only about art. He has good understanding of engineering too. Syadristy created the world's tiniest electric engine. The engine capacity is 1 / 20 cubic mm. Such engine is nearly 20 times smaller than a poppy seed.
So if you want to get into the world of not just midgets but mini-micro-midgets you are to visit the permanent exhibition of the works of Nikolai Syadristy!
