We recently saw what a scanning electron microscope can do to something as simple as a snowflake, but what about if you use it to look at tiny ordinary objects that we normally see everyday?

The microscopes can enlarge objects up to a million times, resulting in these incredibly detailed yet unworldly images. One catch is that the resulting pictures are black and white, so the images have been hand tinted to get these incredible colors. The other catch is that the machines start at around $500,000 a pop, so only a few artists have the access needed to create these beautiful images.

Just in case you were having trouble figuring it out, the gallery images show (left to right) a mascara brush, a match head, a needle and thread, salt and pepper, used dental floss, and a guitar string.

The images were created by Andrew Syred (1,6), Susumu Nishinaga (2,3), Thomas Deerinc (4), and Steve Gschmeissner (5).

Daily Mail, via Gizmodo