Nano technology meets art – the world’s smallest Dala horse created at UCEM

In a unique meeting of nano technology and cultural heritage, a microscopic Dala Horse – the iconic Swedish wooden horse – has been sculpted using a focused ion beam at Umeå Centre for Electron Microscopy (UCEM), a unit at SciLifeLab. The collaboration demonstrates the potential of nano technology beyond traditional research applications. 

The resulting sculpture is barely seven micrometers long – around one-tenth the width of a human hair, or the same size as a red blood cell – and is invisible to the naked eye. Yet, it retains the characteristic form and detailing of a traditional painted Dala horse, or Dalahäst in Swedish. 

“Instead of removing material with the ion beam to study, for instance cellular structure, our goal was to create something – to sculpt with precision on the nanoscale. This truly was an unusual and exciting challenge for me,” says Nils Hauff, staff scientist at UCEM, a unit in the SciLifeLab Cryo-EM national facility. 

Pushing the boundaries of electron microscopy 

For this project, Hauff used a focused ion beam (FIB) system, a highly precise tool typically used in cutting-edge research of biological or material samples. By milling away layers for imaging or structural analysis, the FIB reveals the samples’ insides. In this case, the same beam was used as a sculpting tool to carve the Dala horse from a small block of platinum. 

“It’s a bit like using a laser beam as a chisel,” says Hauff. “One of the key technical challenges was ensuring the structure didn’t get blown away by the ion beam’s energy – at this scale, even the tiniest force can be too much.” 

Whilst the sculpting process took around one full day, the design and planning took several weeks. Establishing a shared vocabulary between an artist and a scientist – bridging concepts such as microns, ion beams, and electron microscopy – was key to their success. 

Microscale craftsmanship with artistic detail

Having previously created the world’s largest gingerbread house, artist Erik Olof Wiklund is known for his explorations of scale. The idea for the world’s smallest Dala horse goes a few years back, when Wiklund visited a museum exhibit in Dalarna, which featured what was then the smallest known Dala horse, several millimeters tall.  
“I remember thinking it was unnecessarily large to be the world’s smallest,” Wiklund says in a press release from Umeå University.

When he began his master’s project at the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, he found the idea of the world’s smallest Dala horse in one of his notebooks. “I thought, well, I’m at a university now – surely there must be someone here who knows someone who can help,” he says, and continues: “I never imagined the help I needed would be right here in Umeå – it felt too good to be true”. 

After many emails and phone calls, his idea eventually landed with Nils Hauff who found the idea an engaging challenge which he gladly accepted.

A bridge between disciplines

“It was fascinating to see how Erik approached the electron microscopy images from an artistic perspective,” says Hauff. “He thought about angles, light, and form in ways we typically don’t when documenting research samples.” 
 
For both participants, the collaboration became a learning experience that highlighted the possibilities of cross-disciplinary work. Wiklund gained insight into the tiny structures that underpin life and matter, while Hauff discovered new perspectives on the aesthetic and communicative potential of scientific tools.

“This project is a great example of how our national infrastructure can be used in novel and creative ways,” says Hauff. “It reminds us that scientific instruments don’t only belong to the lab – they can also contribute to cultural and artistic exploration.” 

At Umeå University, a SciLifeLab site, both fine arts, science and engineering are part of the same faculty, such collaborations are encouraged as a way to foster innovation and broaden impact. 
“This project shows how research infrastructure can be used in unexpected ways,” says Hauff. “And how much fun it can be to let different worlds meet,” Wiklund concludes.  

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