These are the fascinating pictures of miniature table sculptures molded around bonsai trees that take up to a painstaking 18 months to create. Japanese illustrator Takanori Aiba, 58, has built the intriguing scale models of windmills, lighthouses and even the Michelin Man.He delicately uses craft paper, plaster, acrylic resin, paint and plastic to create the host of sprawling miniature communities that wrap around the tiny trees.Following his work as an illustrator for Japanese fashion magazine POPYE he has spent the last nine years producing the detailed mini worlds.The creations take at least three months to construct with his Ice Cream Package Tower taking an astonishing 18 months work. Since 2003, he has made eight models, with 10 more planned over the next few years.
A woman who starved herself to look like Cheryl Cole has told how she shrunk to just under 5st 13lbs after developing anorexia .
WITH A wide smile plastered across his face, this little gecko is ready for his close up .
A proud gorilla mum welcomes her newborn baby western lowland gorilla, a critically endangered species .
A six-year-old boy has been left almost blind after a one-in-a-million allergic reaction to antibiotics .
PICKING up a tiny tea-pot with its paws, a little red squirrel struggles to prepare its morning tea .
STARING eagerly into the camera, this little toad is full of curiosity .
FULL OF STUNNING colours and swirling shapes, the furrows on these fields create a mix of mesmerising patterns .
A trout manages to escape the jaws of a hungry cormorant - only to find itself back inside the bird's long beak .
SWIMMING in unison, millions of silverside fish dwarf the divers .
A fox takes a tumble and lands on his head when he tries to fend off a pair of eagles in Japan .
FROM ICE bubbles to boiling lava, these photographs highlight the stunning shapes and patterns found in nature .
RECORD BREAKING GRAN'S COLLECTION OF NEARLY 800 SHEEP HOTSPOT MEDIA – WITH PICS 0121 551 1004 By Katie Thompson A record-breaking baa-rmy gran with a love for sheep has amassed a collection of nearly 800 woolly wonders .