There is an "artist" here who does similar things with small coins. http://www.mansetizmir.com/1-kurus-tablolari/13837/ He thinks he has done good things. Absurd. The coin, in their hands of such people, is not money, it is to make money for them.
I've been collecting wheat cents to do this in my bathroom. I need approximately 18,000 to cover the floor and have about 13,000 so far. It's taking forever to find them since I'm searching for clean coins with nice detail and with similar colors. This is what I intended to do whenever I have enough and a free week to do it. The photo below shows some of the coins that I've selected; compare this pile to the image below that which are some of the coins purchased in bulk