It's Game, Set, Match for these Winning Matchstick Upcycles

The unassuming matchstick is just an amazing art project waiting to ignite! (Sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves.) But the building-block potential of these tiny wooden sticks is nothing to underestimate.

Check out this replica of Minas Tirith, the capital of Gondor, from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, made out of 420,000 matchsticks. As you can imagine, artist Pat Acton’s incredible feat was a time consuming process. The entire structure was constructed over a three-year period for a total of 1000 hours of labor.

From Middle Earth back down to real life, there are endless ways to repurpose matchsticks to build whatever your creativity can conjure. Here are some other examples of makers around the world using matchsticks to build beautiful works of art.

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