Randall Rosenthal sure has a way with wood.
An artist based in Long Island, N.Y., Rosenthal has become something of an online sensation, thanks to his jaw-dropping wood sculptures depicting objects one typically associates with being flimsy: newspapers, baseball cards and, perhaps most famously of all, money.
This week, a sculpture created by Rosenthal in 2011 of a cardboard box chock-full of cash has gone viral. "I had to pick my jaw up from the floor after I saw what this woodworker did," one stunned Twitter user wrote after seeing photographs of Rosenthal's incredible creation.
Scroll down to see it the evolution of the sculpture -- from a block of wood to a finished product so real we want to reach out and grab it.
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Randall Rosenthal
Rosenthal, who documented the creation of the "box of money" sculpture on Sawmill Creek, a woodworkers' online forum, said he started the project in January 2011.
The first step of the process, he said, was gluing three pieces of white pine together to make one solid block.
The first step of the process, he said, was gluing three pieces of white pine together to make one solid block.
Randall Rosenthal
Randall Rosenthal
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Randall Rosenthal
Rosenthal explained on the forum that he spent a "few days" just focusing on carving the surface of the "box" to create the corrugated look.
Six weeks in, Rosenthal was ready to start painting.
Randall Rosenthal
Rosenthal said in a post on the forum that he started to paint the "easiest one first," referring to the stacks of wooden "cash."
"Some of the buried ones are going to be a bigger challenge to paint than to carve," he wrote.
"Some of the buried ones are going to be a bigger challenge to paint than to carve," he wrote.
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Randall Rosenthal
Randall Rosenthal
Randall Rosenthal
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Randall Rosenthal
Randall Rosenthal
The finished product. (Yes, it's all just wood and paint.)
Rosenthal told The Huffington Post in an email this week that the "box of money" took a total of three months to complete.
Rosenthal told The Huffington Post in an email this week that the "box of money" took a total of three months to complete.
Randall Rosenthal
Rosenthal said he started his career in art as a painter and carpenter before he moved on to architectural design. "That led to what I do now," he told the HuffPost, adding that he's "always had an affinity for wood."
"I like the feeling of driving an edge through a medium," he explained.
"I like the feeling of driving an edge through a medium," he explained.
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