toilet paper tube inside miniature worlds

An artist spends hours painstakingly cutting out tiny shapes to make detailed models - and then fits them inside used toilet rolls.

Anastassia Elias uses paper the same colour as the cardboard tubes to build up the intricate pictures of people.

The 33-year-old has made models of a winter scene with a child building a snowman and another of a woman taking clothes down from a washing line.

Wintry scene: Silhouettes of children playing in the snow are fitted in toilet rolls by artist Anastassia Elias

He has also used toilet rolls to create a school classroom scene, a busy market scene and a model of a grandmother sitting in a living room with a cat.

The models, which sell for £90 each, come alive when light is shined through the roll from one end.

Anastassia, from Paris, France, said he takes the inspiration for his work from watching people around him.

Transformations: an ordinary cut-out creation (left) comes alive when a light is shined through the tube

Home in a loo roll: A woman sits back in her sitting room while the wind blows the curtains and cat prowls

He said: ‘The imagery of my work comes from looking people around me going about their everyday life.

‘Sometimes I use recycled materials and find new things to do with them - this time it was the turn of toilet rolls.

‘The rolls remind me of the famous miniature boats enclosed in bottles.

At work: A classroom scene

a busy market scene

Each model takes me hours to make because I have to cut out all of the small paper shapes that I stick inside the toilet rolls.

‘It is difficult but with practice and patience it gets easier. I use tweezers to manipulate the paper shapes.

‘I select the paper of the same color as the roll. It gives the illusion that the paper figures make part of the roll.’