Wow. They remind me of a small ivory statue in the Nelson atkins museum of art in Kansas city. It was made from one piece of ivory and shows the rebellious hosts of heaven falling into hell after the war in heaven. I would go straight there whenever I visited it. I still wish I lived out west just to see that one piece.

Compared to toothpick carving, they might as well be using chainsaws.

Did someone mention carving with chainsaws?

If you want to reverse direction, let's scale up a bit to totem poles:

Totem Pole Myths:

Myth: Totem poles are a recent introduction to the Northwest Coast.
Fact: Native Northwest Coast oral histories tell us that tall carved poles have been made on the Northwest Coast since ancient times. The earliest European explorer's drawing of a Northwest Coast house frontal pole was made at Dadens village on Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) in 1791. The size and number of totem poles did grow during the 1800s.

Myth: Totem poles can be read just like a book.
Fact: While it is sometimes possible to identify different animals, such as bears, ravens, eagles, it is not possible to interpret what the pole really means without knowing the history of the pole and the family that owns it.

Myth: The "low man on the totem pole" has the lowest status.
Fact: There is no universal significance to the order in which figures are placed on poles. Occasionally "ridicule" figures were carved to shame or embarrass a rival.