Abstract We present the latest results in the fabrication of micro-optical components using a novel nanostructuring process. This low-cost fabrication technology, which exploits advances in the development of photonic crystal fibres, uses a modified stack-and-draw technique where macroscopic distributions of thermally and mechanically matched glasses are reduced in scale by repeated draw-down and restacking procedures until the individual glass features are significantly below the wavelength of incident light. We demonstrate that this fabrication technique is suitable for the creation of large diameter high numerical aperture micro-lenses for light collection and concentration purposes and broadband form birefringent materials.