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Mother Teresa brought to life with staples

Artist Saimir Strati stands in front of his mosaic portrait of Mother Teresa.

Artist Saimir Strati stands in front of his mosaic portrait of Mother Teresa. Photo: AAP

How many staples do you think it would take to create a portrait of Mother Teresa’s face?

Well, Albanian artist Saimir Strati used 1.5 million when he created a 10-square-metre portrait of the saint as a call to Europe to open its borders.

The piece took Strati a month to create and he is hoping to nab a Guinness World Record title for most staples used in a work of art.

If awarded, it would be his 10th record in as many years following nine other mosaics which have been constructed using everything from toothpicks to wine corks.

The message Strati hopes to convey through his Mother Teresa is one of inclusion, as he calls for European countries to stop blocking out Syrian refugees.

“Only Mother Teresa’s humanism may save them,” Strati told the AP news agency.

“This is Mother Teresa’s year.”

For his nod to the Catholic missionary who helped the poor, Strati kept it simple, using ordinary white and brown staples available anywhere.

And where did the idea of using staples come from?

“I saw so many staples used for leaflets and papers at the G20 summit. But those papers have yet to bring peace and a better life in this world,” Strati said.

Strati has donated the piece, which took a month to create, to the National Museum of Kosovo in the capital, Pristina.

In September, Mother Teresa was made a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, 19 years after her death.

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