Brickwares Blog

Once again we delve into the past of people I know in order to rekindle memories of Lego past. Today’s guest is Iain Heath, known to the Lego community as Ochre Jelly. I had the pleasure of meeting Iain at BrickCon 2009 in Seattle last fall. He’s a master of his craft, and a fellow blogger as well. You can find Ochre’s blog, “The Living Brick” at the link below. And I suggest you do, as he some great pics and interesting articles there.

I’m an Englishman abroad. I currently live in the Pacific Northwest where I am a computer programmer (I think they call us ’software engineers’ nowadays, but if you knew what really went on in this industry, you wouldn’t call it “engineering” either!).
My consuming hobbies are Lego, card magic, and synthesizers. However I am only good in one of these three areas (guess which?). I watch a lot of English TV, and am constantly amused by my childrens’ “valley girl” west coast accents! I cook a mean curry. I run a Lego related blog called “The Living Brick” where I attempt to make Lego seem funny. Somewhat feebly.



On to the questions! One caveat, when I created this series, I made the questions for people who aren’t Lego crazy, so questions like “when was the last time you built something with LEGO”, are a bit comical. On the plus side, we tend to know set numbers, which makes the photo searches a bit easier, so thanks for that, Iain!

What was the first Lego set you remember playing with?
It was my first set, which I got for Christmas at the age of 4 or 5. It was set 622 (baggage carts).

What was the coolest Lego set you remember?
When classic Space (with mini figures) came out, I basically wet my pants for a very long time. I remember seeing a large poster with a blowup of set 442 (shuttle) and falling in love with the grey plates, new transparent bricks, and the specialized ’space’ parts like the rocket jets.

How much Lego did you have as a kid?
Freaking tons. It was my main toy as a kid. I used to keep a catalog of how many pieces I had in each combination of shape and color (Captain Sadness!). So I know I had 8000 bricks. I used to try and recreate ship interiors from shows like Star Trek and Space 1999, but this was before mini-figs so the heros were a bit blocky!

Hmmm, blocky people hey? Seems to have had an impact on Ochre…

When was the last time you built something with Lego?
…yesterday. I’m working on something new to unveil at a Lego convention in San Francisco in April. The subject is appropriately “geo-political” for the Con. I can say no more than that, for now!

Bricks By The Bay takes place in the S.F. Bay Area on April 10,2010, also the day before the birthday of a certain blogger who asks people questions about LEGO.

Have you seen any Lego sets recently that made you want to buy them?
I rarely buy official Lego sets for myself – I mainly just get bulk bricks because I am Lego nerd. But I do get Lego sets for my kids, and recently was a bit jealous of the Toy Story “Army Men on Patrol” set that I got for my eldest!

Many thanks to Ochre Jelly for playing along, and sharing his LEGO memories with us. If you have some memories to share with use, drop us a line.

My six year old son (aka my faithful assistant) surprised me the other day with a special LEGO lunch.

Check out these wonderful photos of Star Wars Minifigs on the planet Hoth. These are from Avanut, there’s an article at Unreality.

By far the best thing about BrickCon2009 was the chance to meet and talk to other AFOL (Adult Fans Of LEGO). One of the many builders I was lucky enough to sit next to was Guy Himber of V&A Steamworks. Guy was busily rebuilding some of his pieces for the show, and he and I chatted for a while, about LEGO, creations and the general awesomenessiocity(TM) of the works around us. Coincidentally, one of his pieces was next to “To The Stars”. But it was the sheer superbitudeiness(TM) of “Voyage to the Moon” that brought it the “Best in Art” trophy.

this piece is wonderful in so many ways. From the Steam Punkedness of the rocket, to the way Guy has captured the classic image from the 1902 film “La Voyage dans la Lune” (A Trip to the Moon to you and I, unless you’re French, in which case, you probably ignored everything after the part that read “A Trip to the Moon”.)

You can also check out V&A Steamworks and their many creations on their Flickr Page.

We don’t often blog about other people’s work here at the Brickwares Blog. One of the things we strive for here is to provide content that non AFOLS (and if you don’t know what an AFOL is, you’re probably not one) can enjoy alongside the hardcore bricksters. We hope to be a place of conversation and rational thought about issues surrounding Lego and the building thereof.

We even consider ourselves to be pretty decent at creating things with everyone’s favorite bricks. Today, we’d like to introduce you to a work that verges on the sublime, from one of our favorite builders.

Mark Kelso (Amhakia Visions) has made many fantastic creations, and works with bricks as well as canvas, and many things in between. Mark is one of the most diverse artists in the genre of wildlife art today. His work runs the gamut from abstraction to photorealism, to installations. He paints and draws in numerous mediums, and is just as comfortable painting 14 x 48 foot murals as working on 8 x 10 inch canvases. His subjects range from common animals to such oddities as Kinkajous and Binturongs. Please visit his website at Amhakia Studio

Mark has created a series recounting the spiritual journey of a young man, called Apocalypsis: A Journey Inward.
It’s a multimedia work, incorporating music into the work. In fact, the music inspired Mark to create the work, and says that it will continue to do so for the remaining chapters. The first chapter can be seen at the above link, and Mark hopes to have the second chapter posted around the beginning of August. I’ve provided a couple of my favorite shots from the work, but please visit the page itself, as the work should be experienced as a whole.

and another

And a preview shot for Chapter 2 (remember, this is all made from Lego):

Simply magnificent.

Thanks again to Mark.