Ebrahim Bakhshayeshi got into miniature making completely by accident. "I have a good friend from high school. He was doing it in Iran before we moved to Estonia. I used to visit him quite often and I got interested. Then, one day I asked him if I could try it," Bakhshayeshi said in an interview with ETV show "Ringvaade."

"I remember the first thing I tried, the first thing I made, they could sell it.  It seemed like maybe I can be good at it, so I started."

Bakhshayeshi came to Estonia from Iran nine years ago. "My wife had the opportunity to come here to study. She studied landscape design at the Estonian University of Life Sciences (Eesti Maaülikool) in Tartu," he explained.

Initially, they had no plans to stay in Tartu for a long time. "But almost immediately after we moved, I found work. The work I did was sometimes good when I was involved in artistic projects. We did a lot of projects for Estonian museums," he says.

"That was the fun part but it was mostly industrial. It wasn't my cup of tea to make things with very precise details every day. So, I thought maybe I'd take my chances and start with something small and see how it goes."

He admits however that the biggest challenge is how to make money. "I'm happy with what I'm doing but you're either happy or rich," he laughs.

Bakhshayeshi has made miniatures of several legendary places in Tartu. "I love Tartu. It's the safest place on Earth for me to live. I feel the most comfort here and it feels very much like home. Not even like a second home – it is home," he says.

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"I wanted to start making some models, so why not make some of the city I live in and I love? I didn't have a solid plan to make this many of Tartu but it just happened. I did the first one, started the second and now I plan to make many more," Bakhshayeshi told ERR.

The models he makes have to be as similar as possible to the real places. However, there also has to be something about those places that inspires Bakhshayeshi to create a model. "It needs to have character. Places which are too flat don't interest me. the more details it has, the more beautiful it's going to be at the end," he said.

What gives Bakhshayeshi the most joy is seeing people's reaction when they look at his art. "I enjoy every step but when people see it, their reaction is the best part. I like the feedback. Seeing people's faces when they see it, that's the best part, the most rewarding part."

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