Tiny masterpieces: There's more to pasta than just cooking

A resident of the Perm region, Sergei Pakhomov is renowned for having an unusual hobby. He makes cars, tanks, tractors, airplanes, and helicopters out of pasta.

His collection features about three dozen such artifacts. He believes his pastime could one day meet with commercial success, which is why he decided to patent his technique of creating things out of solid wheat.

Krasnokamsk resident Sergei Pakhomov keeps his unique collection carefully wrapped up in foil. These fragile works are not children's toys, warns their creator.

The miniature copies of land, water, and air transport were fabricated for commercial purposes. Sergei constructed his first car out of noodles about five years ago.

It all began six years ago. By profession Sergei is a creative designer and develops various advertising products. To promote the macaroni factory in Krasnokamsk, he was invited to the plant. Having filmed what he needed to make a commercial, he asked for a handful of pasta samples to go. That evening he saw the light. He inserted an axis into a wheel — that is to say, a piece of vermicelli into some rigatoni — and, voila, he had a pair of wheels... the rest, as they say, is history. The factory closed down, but his hobby took on a life of its own.

Nowadays Sergei gets his "material" from large stores with all varieties of hard wheat. Everything comes in handy: vermicelli, spaghetti, lasagna, rigatoni, rigatoncini... Unlike static matchstick houses, for example, his creations move, spin, fold out, revolve... They can even be turned and twisted.

Today the macaroni collection includes cars, motorcycles, tanks, planes, a tractor-trailer, a cistern, an asphalt roller, a helicopter, a yacht, and even a village with one house and a mill. "Pasta Town" took three years to build, and each model approximately 30 hours.

Sergei Pakhomov has a lot of hard-wheat equipment and vehicles in his collection. What's more, if he puts in a door — it opens, wheels revolve, and seats recline.

Maximum movability is the author's underlying principle. All the parts and details are made solely of pasta of various shapes and sizes.

Sergei: "I go into the store, take a look at the pasta, and think about what I can make. If I see an interesting detail, I'll take a whole packet. What's left over goes in the oven. Incidentally, the idea of eating the collection has been suggested, but I guess it would be toxic due to all the glue.”

There's another reason why Sergei is in no hurry to turn his creations into noodle soup. He hopes the unusual collection will one day turn a profit.

Sergei Pakhomov holds the exclusive worldwide right to create souvenirs out of pasta.

True, commercial success has so far eluded him. His only sales so far were two jeeps for $300.

Today he positions himself not only as the creator of original souvenirs, but as the inventor of a fun way to deal with stress, which his patent does not yet cover.

Let's hope the Master's material lasts a long time!