Posts Tagged ‘lego’
Hermes (2013)
In 2012 I met Billy West and John Dimaggio, and had them sign my Fry and Bender mosaics. When I heard Phil Lamarr would be at Calgary Expo 2013, I built a Hermes mosaic, and was lucky enough to get it signed as well.
And here’s Max to provide some scale
The Mayor
An old friend of mine contacted me about building a mosaic of his friend for the friend’s birthday. I’m always happy to build, and told him to send me an image. Little did i know at the time that it was non other than Calgary’s own Mayor Naheed Nenshi. I set to work building, and managed to produce a piece that (in my humble opinion) brings out that famous smile. It was a pleasure to build, and hopefully one day I’ll have a chance to chat about the piece with the Mayor himself.
Below is the original image. Took a bit of work to replicate the seal and ribbon.
CTV News – Local LEGO lover makes magical mosaics
CTV ran a story about Brickwares, focusing on a few of Dave’s mosaics, and how his studio is laid out.
See the story here.
http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/local-lego-lover-makes-magical-mosaics-1.1161479
Irene – 2012
A while back, I received an email asking about a commissioned piece to celebrate the retirement of the President of SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology), Irene Lewis. SAIT doesn’t mess around when it comes to scale, and decided they wanted something spectacular. So we set off planning an ambitious mosaic, 5 feet by 5 feet in size. For the more Lego-saavy amongst you, that’s 16 Extra Large baseplates, in a 4×4 grid, or 192 studs x 192 studs.
I ended up building it in 2 panels that were more manageable (side by side this time, as I learned from my War of the Worlds build that top and bottom is asking for trouble). So here it is, both in the garage and on site before the unveiling.
(Note: people who build easels for a living have either more patience than me, or better clamps/sawhorses).
Giant (2012)
I was afforded an opportunity to have my work included in a local art show. The good folks at Endeavor Gallery in Calgary were looking for examples of Robot Art, by robots, or for robots. I chose to create a mosaic of one of cinema’s most beloved robots “The Iron Giant”.
I love the movie, and set to work creating something worthy of the occasion. The piece is 30 inches by 30 inches, 4 XL baseplates.
I also made another piece for the show, called “Goat”. It wasn’t a mosaic, but more of a first step towards mask work, taking the flat image, and giving it some depth. I think it turned out fairly well, and has a few touches of me in there.
Surf – 2012
Occasionally, I stray away from the mosaics and work on things that have a 3rd dimension to them. My second love Lego-wise is modular city buildings, in the style of the Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, etc. I really like the detail that is possible within a small space, and the modular nature makes for a nice display of a street etc.
One of my other loves is surfing and surf culture. Just last year I started learning to surf, and while I’m still quite terrible at it, I really enjoy it. One night last year I had a dream about a building on the beach, with a surf shop on one side, and a coffee shop on the other. Above those were some small apartments. when I woke up, and realized this building didn’t actually exist, I set out to create it. And a while later, it did.
The trickiest things in this building for me were the angled “wings”. I’m still learning the “vocabulary” of this style of building, so there was some building and rebuilding of things, which I suspect is how one learns to do this. The roof was particularly tricky and fragile. I’m guess some of my City building friends could immediately find ways to make it less so, but it is what it is.
This piece just recently came home from the Calgary Lego Store, where it was in the display window for a month. I’ve built a few other modulars, but this one is my favorite by far. I have an idea brewing that involves surfing, lego, and rocket ships, but until it becomes a reality, I’ll keep mum about it.
Jayne (2012)
Last year, I booked a table in the Artist Alley at the Calgary Expo, and sold a lot of small (16×16) mosaics. You can see a bunch of them here. I had a blast, and things went really well. So well, in fact, that I decided to upgrade to a full booth this year. When I looked through the line-up of guests booked, I wondered which of them I should make a mosaic of. Making mosaics takes a long time, and the subject has to be something interesting. I decided on a mosaic of Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb from “Firefly”. Always loved that show, and Adam was great on it.
And so it was.
I tweeted a picture of it to Adam Baldwin today, and he seems to like it. I’m looking forward to meeting up with him at Calgary Expo and getting it signed. If you’re at the expo, drop by the booth and say hi. (Booth 1000, near the guest signing area).
And if this is your first time at Brickwares, remember that I do custom portraits etc. drop me a line and we’ll sort it all out.
Yes, It Works!
Been having a blast down at the Calgary Comic Expo, lots of praise and excitement about the mosaics, mini and large. The most talked about piece by far is the QR Code, which I built a few years back. So many people walk up and ask if it really works. Then I tell them to try it, and “Yes, It Works”. In fact, this picture of it ALSO works, but it will really just bring you back to the main page.
While you’re here, check out the site. Brickwares specializes in custom mosaics of all subjects and sizes.
2010 Review
2010 was a very busy year for Brickwares. I built 4 large mosaics, as well as some smaller pieces, had a few commissions, joined a LUG, won a number of awards, and my LEGO world expanded as I met and networked with a number of luminaries within the hobby.
In January, I entered the Silver Springs community show, an annual show in Calgary. The highlights of the show for me were meeting up with a number of the folks from SALUG (The Southern Alberta Lego User Group), and a second place ribbon for the “Rudolph and Hermey” mosaic with its light up nose.
April brought about another local LEGO show, at the Ogden Millican Community Centre, for which I built a mosaic of my youngest son, Max. It turned out very well, and took first prize at the show. I also built a small microscale city, which won 3rd prize in it’s group.
Hot on the heels of that show, we discovered that Calgary had been chosen for the first LEGO store in Canada. Very exciting stuff! As part of the build-up to the grand opening, Chinook Centre was interested in displaying some local LEGO pieces from SALUG. During one of our meetings, I was lucky enough to meet Robin Sather, an incredibly talented builder from the West Coast. I decided to build a replica of the 2010 Stampede poster. It was the largest piece I’ve attempted thus far, and on a serious deadline. Many late nights and rush bricklink orders later, I had something to show.
Big enough for my family to lay on!
In the garage, attaching things..
The finished piece!
The Stampede mosaic received a lot of attention, even from the president of the Stampede Board himself. While that was flattering, the next event brought the highest praise of all! I was lucky enough to be able to help with the “Build-A-Buzz” event for the store opening, and met Dan Steininger, a Master Builder with The LEGO Group. He was very impressed with the Stampede mosaic, which blew my mind. Dan let myself and Jen Wagner put the finishing touches on Buzz. It was such a great experience, and I met a lot of great people, some of whom would keep popping up during the year, like Ed from the Anaheim store!
Dave and Dan
I also volunteered for the Stampede Breakfast, helping with the Minifig builds, which was a blast, and allowed me to be near a LOT of minifig parts…
So many torsos!
Minifig parts galore.
Dave and the little Brickwares.
After the summer was done, and the store in full swing, it was time to turn my attention to BrickCon and Seattle. This is by far my favorite LEGO event (at least so far!) and I was excited to return. I even remembered my passport this year! The show was even bigger than the year before, and I had a great time, meeting up with some old friends, and making a lot of new ones. Some of the highlights were meeting people like Mariann Asanuma and Alex Eylar, whose work I admire greatly, helping to judge the train category, and hanging out with Dave and Stacey Sterling, Tom Rafert, Iain Heath and John Langrish until the wee hours. Oh, and winning Best Large Mosaic was pretty awesome too. “War of the Worlds” was build specifically for the show, and was a lot of fun to make, with bright colors and some fun laser work! Michael Giacchino, Academy Award winning composer and very awesome lego guy tracked me down to tell me how much he liked the piece, which made my brain asplode!
Getting ready to roll!
Lasers are dangerous!
After I returned from Seattle, “War of the Worlds” went up on display at Phoenix Comics on 16th ave in Calgary, where it currently resides, until I figure out what to make next!
In late October, I was contacted by an old friend from high school, and commissioned to build a mosaic for his wife’s birthday. After looking at the picture for a bit, it struck me that I wanted to make a picture of her eyes, and style it after the old Nagel pieces from the 90′s (you might remember his cover for Duran Duran’s “Rio” album). It was a quick but fun build, and as a bonus, I received a picture of the piece hanging in their home.
After I finished “Eyes”, I started toying with something for an upcoming project that’s still in the planning phases. Without giving too much away, I built a small prototype (not of the final image) to show how the concept would work, and my good friend Tony liked it so much it now adorns his baby’s room.
With Christmas fast approaching, I didn’t have time to build much more, but I’ve made a few microscale things for the next Silver Springs show, and, since time prevents a new mosaic before then, I’ll likely bring War of the Worlds to that show, though I don’t like bringing “old” pieces to shows…
At any rate, I can’t imagine what 2011 holds. If it’s anywhere as amazing as 2010 was, I better hold on to my hat! Have a great new year and we’ll see you back here soon.
LEGO Is Freaking Awesome – Jeremy Liland
Welcome to another edition of LEGO is Freaking Awesome, where I interview people about their thoughts and feelings about LEGO. Today, we talk to Jeremy Liland.
Jeremy was born and raised in Calgary, and is 36 years young. he’s a father of two boys (6 and 4 1/2). He’s a interesting character, full of life and the celebration thereof. Jeremy has number of interests and hobbies, but his favorite, by far, is spending time with his kids.
On to the questions.
What was the first Lego set you remember playing with?
Hmmm…. First lego set? Probably just some basic color ones with the big green plates. But I really remember my moon set. I think it was a moon set, it had large thin grey plates, a moon “rover”-car, some men and a lot of grey white and black pieces to build space craft with. Also I had a motor that took batteries, and you could set it up with wheels to pull/push things or attach it to a rope and pulley.
Jeremy is talking about the famous Moon Base Beta set.
Note sure if either of these motors are what Jeremy meant, but they’re pretty cool.
What was the coolest Lego set you remember?
I think the coolest was the two mentioned above. The moon set because it was new and NOT colourful and it was spaceships, nuff said. But, you could do some really cool things with the motor.
How much Lego did you have as a kid?
Quite a bit, I remember having storage issues sometimes. My cousin had a lot more, he had a 6′ circle of denim or something that he kept all his lego in. The edges were laced so when you were done, you just pulled on the laces and picked it all up at once. But if you imagine ( or in your case physically demonstrate it) a 6′ circle piled with lego, not too high but it was a lot.
How much Lego do you have now?
None really and my heart is breaking as I write this. Although my boys have some and we often play with it.
Have you seen any Lego sets recently that made you want to buy them?
Sorta, but it seems like there’s a little less imagination required with some of the sets, the pieces just lend themselves to a certain arrangement and it seems hard to vary. Some, like the Bionicle stuff, doesn’t interest me at all. Maybe I’ll just go buy a giant starter kit and start playing again.
When was the last time you built something with Lego?
Probably within the past week with my sons.
Many thanks to Jeremy for sharing. I suspect he’ll be visiting the LEGO Store soon, if he hasn’t already. Join us again soon for another edition of Lego is Freaking Awesome.
Building Buzz Lightyear
Thanks to the good folks in SALUG, I was fortunate enough to be involved in the Buzz Lightyear build for the opening of Canada’s first LEGO store, at Chinook Centre in Calgary. It was a great time, and I had a blast helping the public build bricks to be added to the statue.
The build lasted an entire weekend, and on Sunday, I was lucky enough to be asked by LEGO Master Builder Dan Steininger to actually help build Buzz’s shoulders. Wow, what a thrill! Up the ladder I went, and with the help of Jennifer Davidson Wagner (thebrickchick), we completed the remaining pieces of Buzz.
It was awesome getting to help out, and meeting lots of folks from The Lego Group, as well as the other volunteers. I learned a lot from Dan, and had a chance to sit a chat with him for a bit. It was also great to meet Jennifer, and expand my LEGO world a bit further. Man, what a year it’s been!
